m\-  " 
Y . 


Thome  well,  7‘  ++■ 


THE  SACRIFICE  OF  CHRIST, 

THE 

TYPE  AND  MODEL  OF  MISSIONARY 

EFFORT. 


f£be  Sacrifice  of  <£Imst,  llje  ®jipe  anil  |flobel  of  gflissionarg  (Effort. 


A SERMON 

PttKACflKI)  BT  APPOINTMENT  OP  TTIB 

BOARD  OF  FOREIGN  MISSIONS 


BEFORE  THE 


Mineral  ^sstmblg  uf  i\t  imbfitman 


IN  THE 


FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH,  NEW  YORK, 

SABBATH,  MAY  18,  1856. 


BY  THE 

REV.  JAMES  H.  THORN  WELL,  D.D., 

PROFESSOR  OF  THEOLOGY  IN  THE  THEOLOGICAL  6EMINABY,  COLUMBIA,  8.  0. 


$ublisf)rtJ  bn  orber  of  tfje  ©nural  Sssrmblfl. 


NEW  YORK: 

MISSION  HOUSE,  23  CENTRE  STREET. 


1856. 


PRINTED  BY 

IE  to  fo  a r to  © . Ken  kins, 

26  Frankfort  St.,  N.  Y. 


A.  SERMON 


BY  THE 


REV.  JAMES  H.  THORNWELL,  D.D., 

PROFESSOR  OF  THEOLOGY  IS  THE  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY,  COLOMBIA,  8.  C. 


J3 ublisfjrti  bg  orficr  of  tljf  ®tnnal  Qsstmblg. 


“ Therefore  doth  my  Father  love  me,  because  I lay  down  my  life,  that  I might  take  it  again.  No  man 
taketb  it  from  me,  but  I lay  it  down  of  myself.  I have  power  to  lay  it  down,  and  I have  power  to  take  it 
again.  This  commandment  have  I received  of  my  Father.” — Jons  x.  17, 18. 

This  passage,  so  rich,  is  yet  so  awful  and  mysterious,  that  it  is  not 
without  fear  and  trembling  I have  ventured  to  make  it  the  subject  of 
discussion.  It  pierces  the  depths  of  eternity,  and  lays  bare  the  counsel 
of  peace  betwixt  the  Father  and  the  Son.  The  “ commandment  ” of 
which  it  speaks  is  nothing  more  nor  less  than  the  commission  to  the  Son 
to  be  the  Saviour  of  the  world — a commission  to  which  allusion  is  fre- 
quently made  in  the  Scriptures,. under  the  emphatic  designation  of  the 
will  of  God.  “For  I came  down  from  heaven,  not  to  do  mine  own 
will,  but  the  will  of  Him  that  sent  me.  And  this  is  the  Father’s  will 
which  hath  sent  me,  that  of  all  which  He  hath  given  me  I should  lose 
nothing,  but  should  raise  it  up  again  at  the  last  day.  And  this  is  the 
will  of  Him  that  sent  me,  that  every  one  that  seeth  the  Son,  and  believ- 
eth  in  Him,  may  have  everlasting  life  : and  I will  raise  him  up  at  the  last 
day.”  To  the  same  “ commandment,”  or  commission  concerning  the  re- 
demption of  men,  the  Psalmist  refers,  when  he  introduces  the  Son  as 
exclaiming : “ Lo,  I come ; in  the  volume  of  the  book  it  is  written  of 
me,  I delight  to  do  thy  will,  0 my  God ; yea,  thy  law  is  within  my 
heart and  it  is  to  the  infinite  satisfaction  which  Jesus  took  in  the 
execution  of  the  trust,  that  He  Himself  refers,  in  the  memorable 


4 


THE  SACRIFICE  OF  CHRIST. 


words : "my  meat  is  to  do  the  will  of  Ilim  that  sent  me,  and  to  finish 
His  work.”  This  is  the  will  which  was  supreme  with  Him  in  the  gar- 
den of  Gethsemane,  and  nerved  His  soul  for  the  horrours  of  the  cross : 
the  will  for  which  He  was  born,  for  which  He  died,  for  which  He  rose 
again,  for  which  lie  lives  and  reigns — the  rule  and  measure,  in  a single 
word,  of  the  mediatorial  economy. 

What  is  particularly  remarkable  in  the  text  is  the  light  which  it 
throws  upon  the  nature  of  the  trust.  Though  stjded  a will,  a command- 
ment, a commission,  it  is  not  so  much  an  authoritative  law,  as  the 
accepted  condition  of  a voluntary  compact.  It  binds,  not  by  virtue 
of  a right  to  command,  but  by  virtue  of  a consent  to  obey.  The 
Saviour  appears  not  as  a subject,  but  a Prince ; an  equal  party  to  a 
high  and  sovereign  treaty.  He  claims  complete  jurisdiction  of  Himself. 
“ I have  power  to  lay  down  my  life,  and  I have  power  to  take  it  again. 
No  man  taketh  it  from  me,  but  I lay  it  down  of  myself.”  These  words 
bear  the  burden  of  the  Godhead ; no  creature  could  sustain  their  weight. 
Jesus  here  asserts  to  Himself  the  essential  independence  which  separates 
contingent  from  necessary  being,  and  appropriates  that  intrinsic  immor- 
tality which  belongs  exclusively  to  Him  who  lifts  His  hand  to  heaven, 
and  says,  I live  forever.  They  are  words  which  none  can  consistently 
employ,  but  He  who  is  God  over  all  and  blessed  forever  more,  and 
may,  therefore,  be  accepted  as  an  unequivocal  testimony,  that  as  the 
Father  hath  life  in  Himself,  so  by  the  mysterious  communication  of  Ilis 
essence,  hath  He  given  to  the  Son  to  have  life  in  Himself.  The 
absolute  sovereignty  which  Jesus  assumes  to  Himself  can  be  reconciled 
with  no  hypothesis  short  of  the  acknowledgment  that  He  is  the 
blessed  and  only  potentate,  the  King  of  Kings  and  Lord  of  Lords.  The 
natural  import  of  His  language  is  : “I  have  received  a commission  from 
my  Father,  not  as  a dependent  subject,  in  whom  it  would  be  treason 
to  have  an  independent  thought,  but  as  a free  and  an  equal  party,  whose 
only  law  is  in  itself ; and  though  it  is  not  possible  that  there  can  be 
any  discordancy  betwixt  the  Father  and  myself,  yet  the  harmony  is 
not  obedience  but  concurrence,  the  result  not  of  a sense  of  duty,  but 
of  unity  of  nature.  My  acceptance  of  the  trust  is  not  the  necessary 
allegiance  of  a creature,  but  the  voluntary  consent  of  a sovereign.  The 
redemption  of  the  world  is  not  a task  imposed  upon  me,  as  the  expres- 
sion of  a superior  will,  which  leaves  me  no  liberty  to  decline,  but  a 
work  cheerfully  assumed,  deriving  all  its  obligation  from  my  own 
cordial  assent.  It  is  not  a command  which,  as  a servant,  I am  bound 
to  obey,  but  a treaty  to  which,  in  the  depths  of  eternity,  1 have 


TOE  TYPE  AND  MODEL  OF  MISSIONARY  EFFORT. 


5 


plighted  my  princely  faith.”  This  paraphrase  which  I have  ventured  to 
put  into  the  mouth  of  the  Saviour,  accords  precisely  with  the  prevailing 
tenour  of  the  Scriptures.  You  cannot  fail  to  recall  that  exquisite  passage 
in  the  Psalms  already  recited,  in  which,  when  sacrifices  and  offerings 
were  pronounced  unavailing,  and  among  all  the  myriads  of  creatures  none 
could  be  found  to  expiate  guilt  or  ransom  from  the  grave ; when  from  the 
tallest  seraph  to  the  humblest  beast,  all  were  alike  unable  to  take  away 
sin,  the  Son  is  introduced  as  saying  from  the  fulness  of  II  is  own  heart, 
and  the  exuberance  of  II  is  own  grace,  Lo,  I come.  lie  did  not  wait  to  be 
commanded.  The  purpose  which  heaved  in  the  Father’s  bosom,  swelled 
in  Ilis  own.  It  was  the  common  love  of  a common  nature;  as  free, 
as  cordial,  as  sovereign  in  the  consent  of  the  Son,  as  in  the  original 
conception  and  proposal  of  the  Father.  The  whole  transaction  was  a 
covenant  of  grace — the  only  covenant  which  God  ever  made  in  which 
the  parties  were  equal — the  only  covenant  in  which  there  was  no 
penalty — in  which  the  sovereign  faith  of  the  agents  was  ample  security 
for  the  fulfilment  of  the  terms.  The  commission  having  been  accepted, 
the  execution  of  it  necessarily  involved  relations,  in  which  He  would 
have  to  become  a subject,  and  render  the  obedience  of  a creature  to  law. 
But  the  act  which  introduced  Him  into  these  relations,  the  first  step 
in  the  stupendous  enterprise,  was  sovereign,  free,  independent.  He 
was  the  master  of  Himself. 

The  text  asserts  that  precisely  because  He  was  the  master  of  Himself, 
the  disposition  which  He  made  of  Himself  rendered  Him,  in  a peculiar 
sense,  the  object  of  the  Father’s  regard.  Therefore  doth  my  Father 
love  me,  because  I lay  down  my  life  that  I might  take  it  again.  This 
passage  is  very  remarkable;  it  seems  to  intimate  that,  in  these  acts  of 
Jesus,  the  laying  down  and  the  taking  of  His  life  again,  there  was 
something  so  glorious  as  to  comprehend  all  His  claims  to  attention  within 
itself ; a brightness  which  hid  the  perfections  of  Ilis  nature  and  being 
displayed  in  other  works,  as  the  splendour  of  the  sun  conceals  the 
lustre  of  the  stars.  The  other  glories  of  Ilis  name  had  no  glory 
in  this  respect  by  reason  of  the  glory  that  excelleth.  It  is  a sub- 
lime tribute  to  the  death  and  resurrection  of  Jesus,  that  they  are  sin- 
gled out  as  the  special  grounds  of  Divine  complacency  and  delight. 
They  include  within  themselves  every  other  motive  of  love.  Here  the 
rays  of  His  excellence  are  concentrated,  and  a perfect  image  is  reflected. 
Here  the  Father  beholds  Him  in  a work  which  expresses  the  fulness 
of  His  being,  which  gives  scope  for  all  the  energies,  and  illustrates  all 
the  perfections  of  His  nature ; which  declares  Him  to  be  the  Son  of  God 


6 


THE  SACRIFICE  OF  CHRIST, 


with,  power.  Here  His  Deity  appears  in  full-orbed  radiance  as  Deity  in 
action.  Nowhere  else  can  the  Son  be  seen  in  all  the  intensity  of  nis 
glory,  and  well  may  He  say : therefore  doth  my  Father  love  me,  because 
I lay  down  my  life,  that  I might  take  it  again.  My  brethren,  if  I can, 
in  any  measure,  extract  the  spirit  of  this  passage,  and  present  it  before 
you  in  the  light  in  which  it  has  impressed  my  own  mind,  I shall  not 
need  to  say  a word  in  furtherance  of  the  cause  which  I have  been 
appointed  to  plead.  It  will  then  speak  for  itself,  and  its  appeals  to 
the  Christian  heart  will  be  as  resistless  and  constraining  as  the  love 
of  Christ.  The  point  to  which  I wish  to  call  your  attention  is  the 
connection  indicated  by  the  illative  “therefore,”  betwixt  the  laying 
down  of  the  life  of  Jesus  and  the  taking  of  it  again,  and  the  peculiar 
complacency  and  approbation  of  the  Father;  how  it  is  that  these  acts 
of  His  so  illustriously  display  His  glory,  and  absorb  within  themselves 
all  the  grounds  of  the  Father’s  love. 

In  estimating  these  events  we  must  obviously  penetrate  beyond 
the  surface.  As  the  transaction  is  exhibited  to  the  eye  of  sense, 
there  is  nothing  in  the  death  of  Jesus  to  justify  the  claim  to  a complete 
jurisdiction  of  Himself,  so  clearly  asserted  in  the  text.  He  seems  to 
be  the  passive  and  helpless  victim  of  violence  and  hate.  He  was  taken 
and  by  -wicked  hands  crucified  and  slain.  And  to  look  merely  at  the  cir- 
cumstances of  His  trial,  as  they  lie  upon  the  face  of  the  record,  one 
would  be  inclined  to  suspect  that  there  was  much  more  pretext  for 
the  jeering  exultation,  He  saved  others,  Himself  He  cannot  save,  than 
for  the  lofty  prerogative  of  sovereignty:  my  life  is  my  own;  I lay  it 
down  of  myself:  no  man  taketh  it  from  me.  I have  power  to  lay 
it  down,  and  I have  power  to  take  it  again.  It  is  evident  that  there 
must  be  more  here  than  meets  the  eye — an  interior  work,  in  which 
Jesus  Himself  was  the  actor,  of  which  the  Roman  soldiers  and  the 
cross  were  but  the  outward  instruments.  The  phraseology  of  the  text 
puts  it  beyond  doubt  that  while  Jewish  malignity  was  consummating  its 
scheme  of  disappointment  and  revenge,  Christ  also  was  engaged  in  an  en- 
terprise of  very  different  character,  in  which  He  could  be  truly  said  to 
lay  down  His  life  of  Himself.  The  scenes  in  which  man  figured  were  but 
the  outer  court  of  the  transaction  ; an  august  mystery  was  enshrined 
within.  Significant  intimations  of  something  awful  and  sublime,  in 
which  Jesus  was  conspicuously  the  agent,  veiled  beneath  the  tragedy 
which  human  infatuation  was  enacting,  were  afforded  in  the  display  of 
more  than  mortal  power  which  preceded  the  arrest,  when  the  baud  that 
came  to  apprehend  Him  “ went  backward  and  fell  to  the  ground,”  and  in 


THE  TYPE  AND  MODEL  OF  MISSIONARY  EFFORT. 


7 


His  own  distinct  recognition  of  the  cup,  which,  in  pursuance  of  the  will 
lie  had  undertaken  to  execute,  the  Father  had  given  Him  to  drink.  We 
here  see  that  His  submission  was  voluntary — that  man  had  no  power  over 
Him,  except  as  it  was  given  by  Himself.  At  the  very  time  when  He  was 
led  as  a lamb  to  the  slaughter,  and  as  a sheep  before  its  shearers  is 
dumb,  so  lie  opened  not  His  mouth,  He  could  have  prayed  to  the 
Father  and  received  an  army  of  more  than  twelve  legions  of  angels 
for  His  rescue.  He  had  but  to  speak,  and  every  arm  uplifted  against 
Him  would  have  fallen  palsied  by  the  side  of  its  possessor.  But  the 
Scriptures  must  be  fulfilled,  that  thus  it  must  be;  the  commandment 
lie  received  from  the  Father  must  be  accomplished — His  covenant 
engagements  must  be  kept.  He  gave  Himself  up  to  men,  and  while 
the  scourge,  the  thorns  and  the  nails,  the  ostensible  instruments  of 
His  death,  were  doing  their  office,  there  was  passing  in  the  mysteries 
of  His  own  being,  a stupendous  transaction  which  filled  heaven  with 
Avonder  and  hell  with  dismay,  that  laying  down  of  His  life,  as  its 
sovereign  proprietor,  which,  when  adequately  understood,  extorts  the 
confession,  truly  this  man  was  the  Son  of  God,  and  removes  all  occasion 
of  surprise  that,  therefore,  the  Father  should  love  Him.  It  were  an 
idle  mockery  of  language  to  find  nothing  more  here  than  patient  sub- 
mission to  insult  and  injury;  and  no  martyrdom  for  truth,  however 
sublime  and  noble,  could  ever  sustain  the  weight  and  intensity  of  the 
inference,  Therefore  doth  my  Father  love  me.  As  Jesus  has  no  rival 
in  His  Father's  heart,  we  must  obviously  seek  a sense  which  will  leave  Him 
without  a rival  in  the  transaction  which  justifies  the  Father’s  love  ; and 
as  the  point  of  admiration  is  not  so  much  what  He  endures,  but  what  He 
does,  wc  must  seek  a meaning  that  shall  represent  Him  rather  as  a 
heroic  actor  than  an  humble  and  uncomplaining  sufferer. 

What,  then,  is  the  nature  of  the  act  implied  in  the  laying  down  of 
His  life  ? I shall  not  scruple  to  assert,  whatever  other  interpretations 
the  language  may  be  capable  of  bearing,  that  it  is  here  to  be  taken  in 
a sacrificial  sense.  It  is  this  which  distinguishes  the  death  of  Jesus 
from  the  death  of  every  other  man.  He  made  His  soul  an  offering  for 
sin.  A body  was  expressly  prepared  for  Him  that  He  might,  through 
the  Eternal  Spirit,  present  an  offering  which  should  really  achieve  what 
it  was  not  possible  that  the  blood  of  bulls  and  goats  could  accomplish, 
the  taking  away  of  sins.  Interpreted  in  this  sense,  the  apparent  con- 
tradictions of  the  text  are  beautifully  harmonized.  He  lays  down  His 
life ; He  takes  it  again,  and  is  as  truly  alive  when  He  lays  it  down,  as 
when  He  takes  it  up.  All  this  is  readily  explained  when  we  remember 


8 


THE  SACRIFICE  OF  CHRIST, 


that  as  a Priest,  He  ever  lives,  and  that  the  efficacy  of  His  work  is  depend- 
ent upon  the  circumstance  that  He  is  incapable  of  death.  His  Divine 
Person  is  essentially  immortal,  and  that  assumption  to  Itself  of  the 
entire  nature  of  man,  by  virtue  of  which  He  becomes  a Priest,  involves 
a union  which  can  never  be  disturbed.  He  can  never  cease  to  be  God 
and  man  in  two  distinct  natures  and  one  Person  forever.  He  is  a Priest 
after  the  power  of  an  endless  life.  The  victim  which  He  offered  was 
His  human  nature,  which  was  susceptible  of  death  by  the  separation 
of  its  parts,  though  the  union  of  neither  part  could  be  dissolved  with  the 
Divine  Son.  Here,  then,  the  Priest  as  living,  lays  down  a life,  upon 
which  death  may  seize  without  affecting  the  integrity  of  His  own  being. 
He  lays  it  down  and  He  takes  it  again.  Both  are  His  own  acts,  and  the 
inconsistency  of  attributing  to  the  dead  the  properties  of  the  living,  is 
fully  resolved.  The  language,  indeed,  seems  to  be  accommodated  to  what 
we  are  studiously  taught  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  concerning  the 
sacrifice  of  Christ,  and  no  other  exposition — none,  at  least,  which  divests 
Him  of  either  nature — can  extricate  His  words  from  absurdity  or  paradox. 
How  He  could  die  and  yet  be  ever  alive — how,  as  dead,  He  could  resume 
a life  which  supposes  Him  not  to  be  dead — these  are  contradictions  which 
can  only  be  explained  by  the  mystery  of  the  incarnation,  in  which  the 
union  of  the  natures  is  maintained,  each  in  its  integrity,  without  confu- 
sion, amalgamation  or  mixture.  The  Priest  lives,  the  victim  dies — the 
Priest  is  the  actor,  the  victim  {he  sufferer. 

The  death  of  Jesus  being  distinctively  a sacrifice,  the  question  arises  what 
there  is  in  this  aspect  of  it  which  entitles  Him  to  such  preeminent  con- 
sideration. It  is  not  a question  concerning  redemption,  as  an  objective 
work,  or  an  outward  manifestation  of  the  Divine  glory,  but  concerning 
the  subjective  states  of  the  Redeemer,  the  moral  influences  under  which 
He  accomplished  it.  The  spirit  of  the  agent,  and  not  the  result  or  tenden- 
cies of  the  work,  determines  His  own  worth.  The  text  implies  that  the 
motives  which  animated  Jesus  were  in  the  highest  degree  meritorious; 
that  great  as  his  achievement  unquestionably  was,  lie  Himself  was  still 
greater;  and  whatever  moral  grandeur  it  possesses,  either  in  illustrating 
the  perfections  of  God,  or  ameliorating  the  prospects  of  man,  is  to  be 
attributed  to  the  moral  grandeur  of  Himself.  The  agent  dignifies  the 
work.  Now,  in  what  did  the  moral  greatness  of  Jesus,  as  exemplified 
in  His  death,  consist? 

To  elucidate  this  point,  all  that  is  necessary  is  distinctly  to  apprehend 
the  nature  of  a sacrifice,  which,  as  to  its  matter,  may  be  compendiously  de- 
fined as  the  satisfaction  of  the  penalty  of  the  law,  and  as  to  its  form  or 


THE  TYPE  AND  MODEL  OF  MISSIONARY  EFFORT. 


9 


specific  difference,  an  act  of  worship.  Guilt  expiated  by  an  office  of  devo- 
tion,— this  embraces  the  prominent  conceptions,  lienee  it  always  implies 
a Priest,  who  presents  the  victim  and  celebrates  the  worship.  In  the  death 
of  Clirist,  therefore,  if  we  would  attain  to  a just  conception  of  the  moral 
excellence  reflected  by  it,  we  must  consider  alike  the  matter  and  the 
form — the  judicial  sentence,  and  the  spirit  of  religion  in  which  the  offer- 
ing was  laid  upon  the  altar.  Let  us  then  contemplate,  for  a moment,  the 
form  of  his  death  as  an  act  of  worship,  evolve  the  elements  of  piety  which 
prompted  it,  and  measure  their  extent  and  intensity  by  the  trial  to  which 
they  were  subjected. 

1.  The  moral  grandeur  of  the  death  of  Jesus  is  not  a little  enhanced, 
when  it  is  apprehended  in  its  distinctive  character  as  an  act  of  wor- 
ship. If  we  consider  it  exclusively  in  the  light  of  a judicial  sentence, 
and  detach  from  the  Saviour  those  active  sentiments  of  piety  and  religion 
which  make  him  a doer  rather  than  a sufferer,  we  may  understand  the 
principles  of  moral  government  which  underlie  the  atonement,  but  we 
shall  fail  to  appreciate  the  dignity  and  glory  of  Jesus.  It  is  not  right  to 
consider  Ilim  as  the  helpless  victim  of  inexorable  wrath,  and  all  the  im- 
putations upon  the  goodness  and  clemency  of  God,  which  the  malice 
of  the  human  heart  has  made  His  vicarious  punishment  the  pretext  of 
suggesting,  are  at  once  dispelled  when  we  enter  into  Ilis  own  mind,  and 
see  the  spirit  of  devotion  in  which  He  presented  Ilis  soul  as  an  offering 
for  sin.  His  satisfaction  is  not  merely  the  ground  upon  which  others 
are  at  liberty  to  approach  and  adore  the  Divine  perfections — it  is  itself 
a stupendous  act  of  prayer  and  an  amazing  tribute  of  praise.  We 
dare  not  entertain  the  thought,  even  for  an  instant,  that  the  Father  is 
harsh  or  vindictive,  or  that  a cloud  obscures  the  benevolence  of  Ilis 
nature,  when  the  very  circumstances  which  are  most  revolting  in  the 
tragedy  of  Calvary  are  elements  of  a worship  which  the  Son  delighted  to 
render  and  felt  that  the  Father  was  glorious  in  accepting.  Considered  ^s 
an  act  of  worship,  there  is  a majestic  awe — a moral  sublimity  thrown 
around  the  death  of  Jesus,  which  fails  to  be  impressed  when  attention  is 
exclusively  confined  to  the  legal  principles  which  made  it  indispensable 
to  the  pardon  of  the  guilty.  It  is  invested  with  a sacredness  which  makes 
us  pause  and  adore.  Never  was  there  such  a doxology  as  when  Jesus 
died,  and  the  whole  work  of  redemption  is  a grand  litany  which  has 
no  parallel  in  the  history  of  the  universe.  There  can  be  no  wonder 
that  the  Father  should  love  the  Son.  Such  worshippers  are  not  to 
be  dismissed  from  the  sanctuary,  nor  such  homage  lightly  esteemed. 
Never,  never  was  there  displayed  before,  and  never,  never  will  there  be 


10 


THE  SACRIFICE  OF  CHRIST. 


displayed  again,  such  piety  as  that  which  burned  in  the  bosom  of  Jesus, 
when  He  laid  down  His  life  of  Himself. 

2.  This  will  appear  from  considering  the  principles  involved,  or  those 
moral  elements  without  which  the  form  of  worship  degenerates  into  an  idle 
mockery.  The  internal  feelings  of  the  Priest  must  correspond  to  the  ex- 
ternal significance  of  the  act.  His  offering  must  express  the  spontaneous 
sentiments  of  the  heart,  or  the  whole  service  becomes  an  empty  parade  of 
hypocrisy.  Now  what  are  the  motives  which  alone  could  be  adequate  to 
prompt  to  such  an  undertaking  as  the  death  of  Christ,  and  to  prompt  to  it 
specifically  in  the  light  of  a solemn  office  of  religion.  The  first  most  ob- 
viously is  an  intense  sense  and  admiration  of  the  holiness  and  justice  of 
God,  and  a corresponding  sense  and  detestation  of  the  sinfulness  of  sin. 
This  is  the  very  language  of  a sacrifice,  considered  in  its  matter  as  the 
expiation  of  guilt,  and  in  its  form  as  an  act  of  worship.  If  there  could 
have  been  a cheaper  redemption  for  the  race,  if  sin  could  have  been  par- 
doned at  a less  expense  of  suffering  and  of  blood,  if  any  other  law  could 
have  given  righteousness,  consistently  with  the  integrity  of  the  Divine 
character,  we  can  hardly  conceive  that  Jesus  should  have  consented  to 
experience  gratuitous  pain  ; and  much  less  can  we  comprehend  how  He 
could  have  rendered  a tribute  of  worship  to  the  Father  on  the  ground  of 
an  exaction  which  cannot  be  vindicated  from  the  charge  of  cruelty.  The 
strongest  argument  to  me  for  the  necessity  of  the  atonement  is  that  Jesus 
died  in  the  spirit  of  devotion.  When  I consider  His  soul  as  a pious 
offering, — then  reflect  that  He  celebrates  the  grace  and  the  condescension 
of  God  in  accepting  the  gift ; when  I consider  the  extent  and  severity  of 
His  sufferings, — 'and  then  remember  that  all  were  endured  to  express  to  the 
universe  His  sense  of  the  Divine  holiness,  I ask  no  more ; I am  satisfied 
that  thus  it  must  be — that  without  the  shedding  of  this  precious  blood, 
there  could  be  no  remission.  So  intense  was  His  conviction  that  nis 
death  was  indispensable  to  the  righteous  pardon  of  the  guilty,  that  He 
seems  to  have  coveted  the  cross,  and  to  have  been  straitened  for  Ilis  bap- 
tism of  blood.  He  could  not  brook  the  thought  that  man  should  be 
saved  at  the  peril  of  the  Divine  glory;  and,  whatever  His  Father’s  honour 
demanded,  He  was  prepared  to  render,  at  any  cost  of  self-denial  to  Him- 
self. Our  finite  minds  are  incapable  of  conceiving  the  extent  to  which 
the  principle  of  holiness,  the  principle  of  supreme  regard  for  the  charac- 
ter of  God  energized  within  Him,  when  He  made  His  soul  an  offering  for 
sin ; and  when  I figure  to  myself  the  scene,  and  undertake  to  penetrate 
into  the  workings  and  emotions  of  the  Saviour’s  heart,  I am  irresistibly  im- 
pressed with  the  conviction  that  nothing  short  of  the  Divine  nature  could 


TIIE  TYPE  AND  MODEL  OF  MISSIONARY  EFFORT. 


11 


have  been  the  (hvelling-placc  of  such  zeal.  I see  not  so  much  an  admi- 
ration of  the  holiness  of  God,  as  the  energies  of  that  holiness  itself.  I see 
the  Father  reflected  in  the  Son.  The  piety  of  the  Priest  flows  from  a 
fountain  of  inexhaustible  fulness.  I feel  that  death  was  to  Jesus  not  so 
much  a penalty  inflicted,  as  an  offering  accepted — rather  a favour  than  a 
curse.  It  was  His  commentary  upon  the  Divine  honour,  and  contemplated 
in  this  light,  all  that  was  revolting  and  terrible ; His  groans,  amazement, 
agony,  and  horrour;  His  strong  crying  and  tears,  lose  their  harshness,  ex- 
cept as  marking  the  malignity  of  sin,  and  become  expressions  of  love  and 
piety  and  zeal.  I forget  the  sufferer  in  the  actor,  and  enter  into  that  awful 
reverence  for  God  which  invests  the  cross  with  the  sanctities  of  worship, 
and  converts  its  shame  into  glory.  I feel  the  moral  sublimity  of  the 
scene.  The  beauty  of  holiness  gilds  its  terrors.  I am  at  no  loss  to 
understand  that  the  Father  should  love  the  Son,  because  He  laid  down 
His  life  of  Himself. 

But  sacrifice  expresses,  with  equal  perspicuity,  the  sentiment  of  pity 
for  man.  Here  is  the  mystery  of  grace.  It  is  not  strange  that  God 
should  be  loved  with  all  the  fulness  of  the  Saviour’s  being;  but  it 
is  strange  that  our  fallen  race  should  be  made  the  object  of  a con- 
descension which  our  capacities  are  incompetent  to  measure.  The 
philosopher  finds  mysteries  in  nature.  His  inquiries  begin  with  the  in- 
comprehensible, and  end  by  attributing  an  equal  wonder  to  all  the  phe- 
nomena of  life.  The  department  of  grace  is,  in  this  respect,  a perfect 
counterpart  to  that  of  nature.  All  is  wonderful ; but  that  which  is  most 
amazing,  which  communicates  least  with  any  ordinary  measures  of  pro- 
bability, is  God’s  love  to  the  sinner.  This  is  the  starting  point  in  the 
scheme  of  redemption.  The  whole  necessity  of  Priesthood  arises  from  the 
miseries  of  man,  as  viewed  by  a nature  at  once  supremely  holy  and  good-. 
Sacrifice  is  the  combined  expression  of  righteousness  and  grace.  God  so 
loved  the  world,  is  the  explanation  of  one  mystery  by  another  equally  in- 
comprehensible. The  charity  for  man,  which  sacrifice  obviously  expresses, 
was  conspicuous  in  the  whole  career  of  Jesus.  His  bosom  glowed  with 
love.  He  had  compassion  on  the  ignorant  and  on  them  that  are  out  of 
the  way  ; and  such  was  the  ardour  of  His  zeal,  such  the  intense  vigour  of 
His  philanthropy,  that  no  ingratitude  or  cruelty  could  quench  its  fires. 
Father,  forgive  them,  for  they  know  not  what  they  do,  is  a key  which 
unlocks  the  secrets  of  His  heart. 

3.  These  two  elements,  love  to  God  and  love  to  man,  which  His  death, 
considered  as  a sacrifice,  expresses,  constitute  the  essence  of  virtue.  They 
are  the  principles  into  which  every  form  of  moral  excellence  may  be  ulti- 


12 


THE  SACRIFICE  OF  CHRIST, 


mately  resolved.  The  extent  to  which  they  pervade  the  character  and 
regulate  the  life, — the  degree,  in  other  words,  in  which  they  are  possessed, 
determines  the  moral  worth  of  the  possessor.  This  degree  is  ascertained 
by  the  severity  of  the  trials  to  which  they  are  exposed.  In  the  sacrifice 
of  Jesus,  therefore,  we  are  to  look  for  the  measure  of  the  intensity  of  His 
principles;  we  are  to  study  His  character  in  the  light  of  sufferings.  We 
are  to  learn  how  much  He  loved  God  and  how  much  He  pitied  man  from 
the  cost  of  His  piety  and  philanthropy  to  His  own  soul.  Tried  by  this 
standard,  He  stands  without  a rival.  To  appreciate  the  greatness  of  His 
virtue,  we  must  bear  in  mind  that  the  occasion  on  which  it  was  so  tri- 
umphantly displayed  was  one  which  might  have  been  avoided.  He  was 
under  no  previous  obligation  to  become  a Priest  and  a victim.  He  might 
have  cherished  His  sentiments  of  sympathy  and  love  for  our  race,  and 
enjoyed  forever  the  communion  of  the  Father,  without  subjecting  Him- 
self to  the  pains  and  privations  of  a mortal  state.  The  glory  of  His 
nature  might  have  been  content  with  those  exhibitions  of  its  power  which 
nature  and  providence  unfold,  when  they  reveal  the  ever-blessed  God. 
His  virtue  might  have  reposed  in  undisturbed  beatitude.  There  was  no 
claim  upon  Him  to  empty  Himself  of  His  Divine  glory,  and  to  be  found 
in  fashion  as  a man.  He  was  master  of  Himself.  Nothing  but  the  sub- 
limity of  His  principles,  the  Godlike  greatness  of  His  heart,  brought  Him 
to  the  earth,  a man  of  sorrows  and  acquainted  with  grief.  Neither,  again, 
was  it  a momentary  enthusiasm,  or  sudden  ebullition  of  heroic  ardour. 
The  principles  from  which  He  acted  were  the  settled  principles  of  His 
soul — they  were  the  life  of  His  life.  Had  they  failed,  or  suffered  abate- 
ment at  any  stage  in  the  progress  of  Ilis  work,  the  worship  would  have 
been  adulterated,  and  the  victim  blemished.  TIis  zeal  for  God  never 
cooled ; Ilis  charity  for  man  never  lessened.  What  grandeur  do  these 
considerations  throw  around  the  character  of  Jesus ! Can  there  be  a 
loftier  height  of  virtue,  an  intenser  energy  of  holiness?  All  creatures, 
here,  with  their  superficial  trials,  retire  into  the  shade.  Jesus  stands  un- 
rivalled and  alone  the  possessor  of  a virtue  which  none  can  understand, 
and  none  can  adequately  love,  but  lie  who  can  fathom  the  deep  things 
of  God. 

“ There  is  reason  to  believe,”  says  Robert  Hall,  “ that  in  a moral,  that 
is,  in  the  highest  point  of  view,  the  Redeemer,  in  the  depth  of  Ilis  hu- 
miliation, was  a greater  object  of  attention  and  approbation,  in  the  eye 
of  His  father,  than  when  He  sat  in  His  original  glory  at  God’s  right  hand 
— the  one  being  Ilis  natural,  the  other  peculiarly  Ilis  moral  elevation.” 
His  virtue  was  put  to  the  strongest  trial  which  omnipotence  could  exact. 


THE  TYPE  AND  MODEL  OF  MISSIONARY  EFFORT. 


13 


The  work  on  which  He  entered,  and  which,  however  Ilis  humanity  some- 
times quailed  and  trembled,  the  Priest  prosecuted  with  unabated  ardour  and 
consistency  of  purpose,  is  a work  whose  difficulties  can  only  be  estimated 
by  Him  who  can  take  the  length  and  breadth  of  God’s  hatred  to  sin.  The 
tragedy  of  Calvary  was  no  scenic  exhibition  of  fictitious  terror  and 
distress.  The  victim  was  roasted  with  fire.  Behold  the  man  ! and  be 
astonished  at  the  spectacle.  “ llis  visage  is  so  marred  more  than  any  man, 
and  His  form  more  than  the  sons  of  men.”  Tell  me,  ye  that  pass  by,  is 
there  any  sorrow  like  unto  Ilis  sorrow?  My  brethren,  this  is  holy 
ground,  and  we  must  take  the  shoes  from  our  feet.  We  can  only  admire 
and  adore.  There  never  was  witnessed  such  a scene  in  the  universe 
before — the  infinite  holiness  and  goodness  of  God  sounded  to  their 
depths — the  whole  moral  energy  of  the  Godhead  in  action.  Well  might 
the  angels  stoop  from  their  heights  and  desire  to  look  into  this  mystery — 
well  might  there  be  silence,  the  silence  of  profound  admiration  in  heaven 
— well  might  the  sun  be  darkened,  the  earth  convulsed,  and  the  very 
dead  startled,  when  moral  elements  were  at  work  on  a scale  of  infinite 
grandeur,  before  which  the  earth,  the  sea  and  the  sky,  and  all  material 
things,  dwindle  into  littleness  as  mirrors  of  the  glory  of  God.  When  I 
contemplate  Calvary  and  comprehend  the  spirit  of  the  agent  who  there 
laid  down  His  life — when  I see  Jesus  putting  into  action,  and  trying  to 
the  utmost,  the  whole  essence  of  virtue,  I ask  for  no  other  explanation : 
the  text  is  solved — therefore  doth  my  Father  love  me. 

The  text,  it  will  be  noticed,  connects  the  love  of  the  Father  not  only 
with  the  laying  down,  but  with  the  taking  again  of  the  life  of  Jesus. 
From  what  has  been  said,  the  extraordinary  merit  of  the  first  may  be 
readily  perceived,  but  the  influence  of  the  latter  consideration  is  not  so 
obvious.  That  the  resurrection  of  the  Saviour,  as  the  proof  of  the  com- 
. pleteness  of  His  satisfaction,  is  essential  to  the  justification  of  the  sinner, 
is  manifest  from  the  nature  of  the  case  ; that  it  was  indispensable  to  the 
discharge  of  the  remaining  office  of  His  Priesthood,  intercession  before 
God,  and  to  His  entrance  into  His  kingdom,  is  equally  apparent.  But 
these  are  not  the  points  to  which  the  text  alludes.  It  is  represented  as 
having  an  influence,  not  upon  His  work,  but  upon  the  feelings  of  the 
Father  to  His  person.  The  doctrine  is,  that  the  love  of  which  He  is  the 
object  on  account  of  His  death  demands  His  resurrection  as  equally 
essential.  His  death  could  not,  in  other  words,  make  Him  the  subject 
of  Divine  complacency  and  delight,  if  that  death  were  regarded  as  final. 
Understood  in  this  light,  it  enhances  the  tribute  to  the  personal  glory  of 
the  Saviour.  Such  were  the  transcendent  merits  of  His  virtue  in  the 
laying  down  of  His  life,  that  it  would  be  an  imputation  upon  the  Divine 


14 


THE  SACRIFICE  OF  CHRIST, 


character,  to  permit  such  an  exhibition  to  pass  without  a conspicuous 
reward.  The  thought  would  be  intolerable,  that  such  a life  should 
hopelessly  perish  from  the  very  greatness  of  its  worth.  The  nobleness 
of  the  sacrifice  demands  a proportionate  compensation.  It  was  not  the 
heroism  of  necessity  or  duty,  it  was  a spontaneous  outburst  of  the 
most  exalted  magnanimity,  for  which  there  was  no  call  but  its  own 
unrivalled  greatness.  Creatures  may  do  well,  but  no  mere  creature  can 
deserve.  But  here  there  was  merit,  and  merit  of  the  loftiest  character. 
God’s  government  would  have  been  wanting  in  essential  justice,  and 
the  Divine  resources  been  defective,  if  such  virtue  could  have  existed  with- 
out the  opportunity  of  signalizing  its  worth  by  appropriate  rewards.  It 
must  be  honoured,  or  there  would  have  been  a blank,  a chasm,  a dark 
spot  in  the  moral  administration  of  heaven.  Jesus,  therefore,  must  rise 
again,  not  merely  for  His  people’s  sake,  but  for  His  own  name ; and 
when  we  read  the  magnificent  honours  which  are  heaped  upon  Him, 
we  feel  that  they  are  fairly  His  due.  He  deserves  to  be  exalted  and  to 
have  a name  which  is  above  every  name — that  at  the  name  of  Jesus, 
every  knee  should  bow,  and  every  tongue  confess  that  He  is  Lord  to 
the  glory  of  God  the  Father.  We  feel  that  He  is  entitled  to  be  made 
Head  over  all  things,  and  to  have  the  power  not  only  of  presenting  His 
Church  without  spot  or  wrinkle  before  the  presence  of  the  Father,  but 
of  collecting  the  angels  under  His  headship,  and  extending  His  grace 
through  all  the  realms  of  intelligent  being,  so  as  finally  to  destroy  the 
possibility  of  sin.  This  is  the  grand  consummation,  and  it  is  a beautiful 
and  glorious  reward.  He  is  to  finish  transgression  and  to  make  an  end 
of  sin — to  redeem  and  sanctify  the  Church,  and  to  confirm  in  holiness 
every  order  of  unfallen  being, — so  that  when  His  wrork  is  finished, 
and  His  glory  complete,  the  intelligent  universe  by  virtue  of  one 
grand  enterprise  of  triumphant  virtue,  shall  be  bound  inviolably  to  the 
throne  of  God.  There  shall  be  no  more  sin — no  more  sorrow — no  more 
darkness.  Holiness  is  to  be  the  eternal  distinction  of  the  creatures) 
because  He  who  is  in  the  midst  of  the  throne  is  the  centre  and  source 
of  their  stability,  and  their  security  is  the  tribute  which  the  Father  pays 
to  His  transcendent  excellence. 

I have  now  briefly  and  imperfectly  developed  the  force  of  the  illation 
in  the  declaration  of  the  text — therefore  doth  my  Father  love  me,  because 
I lay  down  my  life  that  I might  take  it  again.  Jesus  appears  as  a wor- 
shipper of  God  burning  with  zeal  for  the  Divine  glory  and  compassion 
for  the  souls  of  men,  and  performing  an  act  of  homage  which  concen 
trates  in  itself  every  principle  of  virtue,  and  displays  the  energies  of 
infinite  holiness  in  intensest  action.  The  cross  is  the  only  spot  in  all  the 


THE  TYPE  AND  MODEL  OF  MISSIONARY  EFFORT. 


15 


universe  of  God,  where  the  word  merit  should  ever  be  pronounced ; 
and  when  we  contemplate  Him  who  hangs  there,  and  enter  into  the 
moral  import  of  the  deed — when  we  rise  to  the  comprehension  of  all  that 
is  included  in  a sacrifice  for  sin — when  we  measure  the  length  and 
breadth,  the  height  and  depth  of  that  moral  heroism  which  dared  to 
undertake  it,  we  want  no  other  argument — we  feel  at  once  that  Jesus 
is  Divine.  The  impulse  to  worship  is  irresistible.  We  cannot  help  falling 
down  like  Thomas  and  exclaiming,  My  Lord  and  my  God.  There  is  no 
glory  that  we  can  give  to  God  higher  than  the  glory  which  our  moral 
nature  constrains  us  to  attribute  to  the  High  Priest  of  our  Profession. 
These  were  the  sentiments  of  Jehovah  Himself.  He  loved  the  Son, 
because  He  perceived  in  the  Son  the  brightness  of  His  own  image.  None 
could  be  capable  of  such  an  act  as  the  offering  of  Jesus,  but  one  who 
was  God  over  all  and  blessed  forever  more.  Such  merit  which  we  feel 
not  to  be  disproportioned  to  the  reward  of  universal  dominion  and  for 
which  our  moral  sentiments  demand  a compensation  that  tax  the  re- 
sources of  omnipotence — such  merit  it  were  blasphemy  to  ascribe  to  a 
creature.  It  blazes  through  the  universe  in  Divine  characters.  It 
proclaims  its  own  nature.  It  stands  out  unrivalled  and  alone — and 
if  it  be  not  the  property  of  God,  we  must  cease  to  ascribe  to  Him 
absolute  supremacy  of  excellence.  For  myself,  I am  bold  to  say  that  the 
moral  character  of  Jesus  shuts  me  up  to  the  belief  of  His  divinity. 
There  is  no  brightness  in  heaven  which  can  transcend  the  glory  of  the 
cross,  and  if  there  be  a being  greater  and  mightier  than  Jesus,  there  is 
assuredly  none  that  is  purer,  holier  or  better.  He  fills  the  love  and  ad- 
miration of  my  soul. 

The  application  of  this  subject  to  the  question  of  missions  need  not 
detain  us  long.  It  has  grown  into-  a proverb  that  the  spirit  of  missions 
is  essentially  the  spirit  of  the  Gospel,  but  the  grounds  of  their  identity 
are  in  many  cases  so  imperfectly  apprehended,  that  many  who  call 
themselves  Christians  are  not  ashamed  to  slumber  over  the  necessities 
of  the  heathen,  while  others  are  impelled  to  exertion  by  motives  which 
have  little  analogy  to  the  temper  and  example  of  Christ.  The  proposi- 
tion, howrever,  is  true,  and  it  is  of  the  last  importance  that  the  Church 
should  be  aroused  to  a full  conviction  of  its  truth.  Zeal  for  the  propa- 
gation of  the  Gospel,  upon  proper  principles  and  for  proper  ends, 
is  the  highest  exhibition  of  Christian  integrity.  If  any  man  have  not 
the  Spirit  of  Christ,  he  is  none  of  His.  This  is  true  of  the  Spirit  which 
He  exemplified  as  a Priest.  We  also  are  made  Kings  and  Priests  unto 
God.  As  our  union  with  Him  introduces  us  by  adoption  into  the  family 
of  God,  so  we  share  an  office  bearing  somewhat  the  same  relation  to 


16 


THE  SACRIFICE  OF  CHRIST, 


His  Priesthood,  which  our  adoption  bears  to  His  Sonship  by  nature. 
We  are  Priests  in  the  sense  that  we  must  be  animated  by  the  same  prin- 
ciples which  pervaded  His  offering,  and  that  we  must  really  express  them 
in  outward  works,  in  the  full  intensity  of  which  they  are  susceptible  in 
our  hearts.  Our  Priesthood  differs  from  His,  in  the  circumstance  that 
our  offerings  are  only  expressions  of  our  principles,  and  have  no 
judicial  value  in  the  expiation  of  guilt ; and  by  the  other  circumstance 
that,  as  we  have  no  jurisdiction  of  ourselves,  they  possess  no  absolute 
merit.  We  can  neither  redeem  others  nor  arrogate  praise  to  our  own 
persons.  In  other  respects  there  is  a full  and  striking  correspondence 
betwixt  the  Priesthood  of  the  Church  and  the  Priesthood  of  Jesus. 
As  He  was,  so  are  His  disciples  in  the  world. 

1.  That  supreme  reverence  for  the  glory  of  God  which  prompted  Jesus  to 
regard  not  His  life  dear  unto  Him,  provided  His  Father’s  honour  were  main- 
tained, must  be  the  dominant  principle  of  action  in  every  Christian  heart. 
The  Divine  character  must  be  sacred  in  our  eyes.  The  jealousy  which 
the  prophet  Elijah  expressed  for  the  Lord  God  of  Hosts,  which  Paul  felt 
when  he  beheld  the  Athenians  devoted  to  superstition,  is  no  transient 
sentiment  of  extraordinary  zeal,  nor  sudden  ebullition  of  romantic 
impulse, — it  is  the  steady,  settled,  pervading  principle  of  the  Christian 
life.  To  be  a Christian  is  to  love  God,  and  to  love  God  is  to  reverence 
His  name.  In  proportion  to  the  intensity  of  this  principle  will  be  our 
efforts  to  vindicate  the  Divine  Honour  from  reproach.  Wc  hate  sin  not 
merely  because  its  consequences  are  disastrous,  or  its  forms  repugnant  to 
our  tastes  and  sensibilities,  but  because  it  is  a reflection  upon  God.  In 
all  its  exhibitions  it  is  essentially  enmity  against  Ilim,  but  there  are 
manifestations  of  it  which  assume  the  distinctive  character  of  a libel  upon 
His  name.  Idolatry,  superstition,  Socinianism,  all  the  types  of  pagan- 
ism, do  not  more  conclusively  demonstrate  that  man  is  by  nature  a relig- 
ious being,  than  they  demonstrate  that  the  carnal  mind  is  enmity  against 
Gpd.  The  abominations  of  the  gentile  world  are  not  the  crude  rites  of  a 
people,  as  many  philosophers  would  have  us  believe,  adapted  to  the 
infancy  of  human  knowledge,  expressing  the  natural  sentiments  of  piety 
and  reverence  in  a form  as  yet  imperfectly  developed,  and  promoting 
the  education  of  the  race  in  larger  and  juster  views.  They  are  not  ten- 
dencies towards  God  in  the  direction  of  a proper  worship.  They  are  not 
the  feeble  and  obscure  utterances  of  childhood,  sincere  and  honest,  but 
uninstructed.  They  are  not  the  results  of  involuntary  ignorance.  On 
the  contrary,  they  are  stages  of  degradation  which  men  have  successively 
reached  in  their  apostasy  from  God— they  are  the  utterances  of  alienated 
hearts — the  slanders  of  malignant  and  poisoned  tongues.  The  Heavens 


TIIE  TYPE  AND  MODEL  OF  MISSIONARY  EFFORT. 


17 


declare  God’s  glory  and  the  firmament  showeth  Ills  handiwork — 
the  invisible  things  of  Him  are  clearly  seen,  even  Ilis  eternal  power 
and  Godhead  being  understood  by  the  things  that  are  made.  Creation 
and  Providence,  the  structure  and  laws  of  our  own  souls  proclaim  Ilis 
being,  Ilis  attributes  and  Ilis  will — so  that  men  are  without  excuse. 
There  are  radical  principles  in  the  mind,  which,  if  cherished  and  devel- 
oped according  to  their  proper  tendencies,  would  rebuke  the  errors  of 
the  heathen  ; so  that  they  may  be  said  to  know  God,  as  possessing  the 
germs  of  that  knowledge  in  the  constituent  elements  of  reason.  The  real 
difficulty  is  their  reluctance  to  glorify  Ilis  name.  Hence  they  become  vain 
in  their  imaginations,  suppress  the  light  of  nature,  and  their  foolish  heart 
is  darkened.  Hence  it  is  that  they  have  changed  the  glory  of  the  uncor- 
ruptible God  into  an  image  made  like  to  corruptible  man,  and  to  birds 
and  four-footed  beasts  and  creeping  things.  Hence  it  is  that  they  have 
changed  the  truth  of  God  into  a lie,  and  worshipped  and  served  the 
creature  more  than  the  Creator,  who  is  blessed  forever.  Amen.  This  is 
the  natural  history  of  paganism.  When  the  Christian  man  contemplates 
this  spectacle — when  he  rises  to  some  mount  of  vision  and  passes  in 
review  before  him  the  heathen  and  anti-cliristian  tribes  of  earth — when  he 
hears  one  unbroken  voice  of  blasphemy  and  slander  ascending  from  every 
tongue  against  that  name  which  angels  pronounce  with  awe,  is  there  no 
sentiment  of  indignation,  no  spirit  of  zeal  for  the  Lord  God  of  Hosts? 
Can  we  hear  our  God  traduced  and  reviled,  and  yet  hold  our  peace  ? 
Can  we  witness  unceasing  libels  on  His  character,  and  yet  take  no  step 
to  vindicate  His  injured  honour  ? Can  we  pretend  to  have  the  spirit  of  our 
Master,  who  was  clad  with  zeal  as  a cloak,  when  we  can  gaze  unmoved 
upon  the  abominations  of  a world  lying  in  wickedness,  which  have  been 
introduced  by  the  arch-enemy  of  God  in  order  to  insult  and  reproach 
Him?  Oh!  tell  it  not  in  Gath,  publish  it  not  in  Ashkelon!  Your 
national  banner  is  insulted ; your  blood  boils  in  your  veins,  and  you  cannot 
rest  until  the  wrong  has  been  repaired.  Your  earthly  friend  is  reviled 
in  your  presence  ; you  would  scorn  yourself  if  you  could  submit  with 
patience.  But  all  wrongs  are  tolerable,  provided  it  is  only  God  who  is 
their  object!  You  must  not  tarnish  my  country’s  name,  you  must  not 
reproach  my  patron  nor  my  friend,  you  must  taint  with  infamy  no  earthly 
object  that  I love  or  prize — but  God,  the  God  who  made  me,  the  God  who 
redeemed  me,  the  God  who  keeps  me,  whose  air  I breathe,  whose  earth  I 
walk,  and  whose  Heaven  I hope  to  gain — wdiy  upon  him  you  may  trample 
and  pour  contempt,  with  nothing  to  fear  from  me  ! Is  this  the  Christian 
spirit  ? Is  this  the  spirit  which  brought  Jesus  from  the  skies  and  nailed 
2 


18 


THE  SACRIFICE  OF  CHRIST, 


Tlim  to  the  cross?  Is  this  the  love  which  we  bear  to  our  Father’s  name  ? 
Oh ! no,  n<5.  Our  souls  are  stirred  within  us,  stirred  to  their  very  depths, 
when  we  behold  a world  joined  in  conspiracy  to  darken  the  glory  of  God. 
Our  bowels  are  moved,  the  fire  burns  within,  and  we  must  speak. 

But  you  object  that  these  reproaches  cannot  injure  the  Almighty  nor  dis- 
turb the  eternal  tranquillity  of  Ilis  throne.  Why  then  be  so  concerned  about 
them  ? Simply  because  they  are  lies  and  frauds.  They  traduce  Ilis  char- 
acter, and  withhold  from  Ilirn  Ilis  due.  Is  your  indignation  against  theft 
measured  exclusively  by  the  injury  which  the  party  may  sustain  in  the 
loss  of  property  ? your  abhorrence  of  scandal  founded  alone  upon  the 
probability  of  its  success?  Is  this  the  secret  of  your  zeal  for  the  honour 
of  your  friend  ? Is  there  no  sense  of  right,  no  sense  of  justice,  no  sense 
of  truth  ? Is  there  no  such  thing  as  an  honest  desire  that  the  truth  should 
be  known  because  it  is  the  truth  ? Has  a miserable  utilitarian  philosophy 
exploded  from  amongst  us  the  first  principles  of  morals  ? God  is  glori- 
ous : the  Christian  man  knows  it,  and  he  wants  all  the  world  to  know  it ; 
and  his  anxiety  to  spread  the  truth  is  in  proportion  to  the  enormity  of  the 
lie  which  is  supplanting  it.  The  Christian  man  loves  God,  and  loves  Ilim 
with  all  his  heart, mind,  soul  and  strength;  and  the  spontaneous  dictate  of 
love  is  to  maintain  the  rights,  and  vindicate  the  worth  of  the  object  to 
which  it  is  directed.  The  more  completely  undisturbed  the  Divine 
Throne  is  by  the  calumnies  of  sin,  the  more  eager  is  the  impulse  to  set 
the  truth  before  the  nations  of  the  earth ; because  the  more  undisturbed 
it  is,  the  more  flagrant  is  the  falsehood,  the  deeper  is  the  shame. 

My  brethren,  this  motive  is  no  visionary  thing.  It  has  animated  the 
people  of  God  in  all  ages  and  under  all  dispensations  of  religion  ; and  if 
we  are  not  sensible  of  its  ascendency  in  our  own  hearts,  we  have  reason  to 
question  whether  we  are  fit  for  that  communion  in  which  Moses  is  found, 
who  ground  the  calf  to  powder;  Elijah,  who  destroyed  the  prophets  of 
Baal ; and  Paul  and  Barnabas,  who  were  shocked  at  the  proposal  to  pay 
them  Divine  honours.  We  have  reason  to  distrust  our  sympathy  with 
Him  who  made  his  soul  an  offering  for  sin,  in  the  spirit  of  intense  adora- 
tion of  the  holiness  of  God.  Our  zeal  can  never  be  put  to  any  such  test, 
as  that  of  our  Master.  We  arc  not  required  to  expiate  guilt.  All  that  is 
demanded  of  us  is  to  speak.  We  are  not  to  energize  common  sura  tely  with 
that  holiness — we  are  only  to  proclaim  it,  and  to  proclaim  Him  in  whom 
it  has  been  conspicuously  displayed.  Let  us  look  at  Ilis  work  and  then 
at  ours,  and  can  we,  for  very  shame,  settle  down  in  indifference? 

2.  The  form  which  our  zeal  for  the  Divine  glory  is  to  take,  that  is,  the 
works  to  which  we  should  be  impelled  by  it,  are  determined  by  the 
influence  of  the  other  motive  which  entered  into  the  sacrifice  of  Christ. 


TIIE  TYFE  AND  MODEL  OF  MISSIONARY  EFFORT. 


19 


We  do  not  belong  to  a dispensation  which  calls  down  fire  from  Heaven 
to  avenge  the  impieties  of  earth.  The  Son  might  have  maintained  His 
Father’s  honour  by  consigning  our  race  to  perdition.  But  pity  moved  His 
heart;  and  while  he  was  indignant  at  the  sins  and  wickedness  of  man,  lie 
pitied  his  miseries,  His  bowels  of  compassion  were  moved,  and  the 
universe  beheld  with  rapture  and  astonishment  the  matchless  scheme  of 
grace.  This  sentiment  of  pity  for  the  guilty  and  the  miserable,  He  has 
embedded  in  the  hearcs  of  1 1 is  people,  lie  has  cast  them  in  the  mould 
of  Ilis  own  tenderness,  and  their  bowels  yearn  over  a fallen  world.  They 
ascend  the  mount  of  vision,  as  Jesus  from  Olivet  surveyed  Jerusalem ; and 
the  spectacle  which  they  behold  of  misery,  degradation  and  death — the 
fiends  of  darkness  brooding  over  guilty  and  infatuated  nations,  and  the 
curse  of  God  settling  upon  their  souls,  moves  them  to  tears,  as  the  ap- 
proaching ruin  of  the  holy  city  moved  their  Master  before  them. 

Wherever  they  turn  their  eyes,  sin  and  death  present  their  hideous 
shapes.  Every  gradation  of  wretchedness,  from  the  lethargy  and  insensi- 
bility of  stolid  ignorance,  to  the  anxious  apprehensions  and  agonizing 
fears  of  awakened  consciences,  seeking  a delusive  peace  in  the  rites  and 
tortures  of  will-worship  and  superstition,  is  seen  on  every  hand.  Dark- 
ness covers  the  earth  and  gross  darkness  the  people.  Without  God  they 
are  yet  seeking  Him — misled  by  their  carnal  minds  they  can  never  find 
Him.  They  must  lie  down  in  sorrow.  There  is  a light  which  can  dispel 
this  darkness,  but  it  has  never  yet  appeared  in  their  hemisphere.  There 
is  a name  which  can  heal  this  sorrow',  but  it  has  never  yet  been  pro- 
nounced in  their  dialects.  Is  there  nothing  in  this  spectacle  of  a world 
in  ruins  to  stir  the  compassions  of  the  Christian  heart?  Can  we  look  upon 
our  fellows,  members  of  the  same  family,  pregnant  with  the  same  instincts 
and  destined  to  the  same  immortality,  and  feel  no  concern  for  the  awful 
prospect  before  them  ? They  are  perishing,  and  we  have  the  bread  of 
life — they  are  famished  with  thirst,  and  vre  have  the  wrater  of  which  if  a 
man  drink  he  shall  never  thirst— they  are  dead,  and  we  have  the  spirit  of 
life.  AVe  have  but  to  announce  our  Saviour’s  name — to  spread  the  story 
of  the  cross,  and  we  open  the  door  of  hope  to  the  multitudes  that  are 
perishing  for  lack  of  knowledge.  The  secret  of  their  misery  is  sin,  and 
nothing  can  do  them  effectual  good  but  that  blood,  offered  through  the 
Eternal  Spirit,  which  purges  the  conscience  and  destroys  the  dominion  of 
this  monster.  AVe  have  but  to  erect  the  cross,  and  the  millions  wrho  are 
dying  from  the  stings  of  the  fiery  serpent,  may  look  and  live ! AAras  there 
ever  such  an  appeal  to  the  charities  of  man — a dying  world  stretching  out 
its  arms  and  imploring  by  the  mute  eloquence  of  its  miseries  our  sym- 
pathy and  aid? 


20 


THE  SACRIFICE  OF  CHRIST, 


AATien  tlie  cry  of  starving  Ireland  came  to  onr  shores,  the  nation  rose 
as  one  man,  and  by  a noble  and  generous  impulse  interposed  to  arrest, 
without  delay,  the  progress  of  the  destroyer.  The  sufferers  were  bone  of 
our  bone  and  flesh  of  our  flesh,  they  were  our  brothers  in  humanity:  that 
was  enough,  we  gave  them  the  bread  which  their  own  soil  had  denied  to 
them.  When  the  pestilence  was  spreading  its  raven  wings  over  the 
Southern  cities  of  our  own  land,  their  brethren  at  a distance  felt  it  a 
privilege  to  relieve  their  distresses  by  their  sympathy,  their  assistance,  and 
their  alms.  It  was  a just  tribute  to  our  common  nature.  But,  my 
brethren,  what  was  the  famine  in  Ireland,  what  the  plague  in  Charleston 
and  Savannah,  Portsmouth  and  Norfolk,  compared  with  that  famine 
under  which  nations  are  starving — that  plague  under  which  nations  are 
dying?  And  if  the  call  of  earthly  wretchedness  cannot  be  disregarded 
without  renouncing  that  humanity  which  binds  us  to  our  fellow  men, 
what  shall  be  said  of  him  who  refuses  to  extend  a helping  hand,  or  even 
to  entertain  a sympathizing  wish,  for  those  who  are  rushing  blindly  and 
hopelessly  into  the  thick  darkness  of  the  second  death  ? Shall  we  call 
him  a man?  Can  we,  dare  we  call  him  a Christian  man?  Can  he  stand 
beneath  the  cross,  and  be  warmed  by  the  blood  which  flows  there,  can 
he  be  joined  to  the  heart  Avhich  bleeds  there,  and  enter  into  the  prayer 
which  is  breathed  there,  and  turn  away  unmoved  from  the  spiritual  mise- 
ries of  his  kind?  Is  this  to  imitate  Jesus?  I shall  not  insult  your 
understandings  by  a categorical  answer  to  the  question.  I shall  not 
doubt  the  authenticity  of  the  scenes  of  Gethsemane  and  Calvary.  The 
truth  is,  the  apathy  of  the  Christian  Church  to  the  condition  of  the 
heathen  can  only  be  explained  by  the  supposition  of  a lurking  scepticism 
in  regard  to  the  perils  of  their  state.  There  is  a secret  feeling,  where 
there  is  not  a developed  conviction,  that,  after  all,  they  shall  not  surely 
die.  This  plea  may  extenuate  but  does  not  justify  the  neglect  of  the 
Church,  for  it  only  extenuates,  without  destroying,  the  miseries  of  the 
heathen.  The  appeal  to  our  principles  as  Christians,  our  love  for  God 
and  our  pity  for  our  fellows,  is  still  mighty  from  the  present  injuries 
which  idolatry  and  superstition  are  endeavouring  to  heap  on  the  character 
of  God,  and  from  the  present  sorrows  which  paganism  entails  upon  its 
votaries.  These  are  evils  which,  with  minds  and  hearts  properly  tem- 
pered, we  could  not  tolerate  a moment  longer  than  we  were  destitute  of 
power  to  relieve  them.  AVe  do  not  turn  away  from  our  suffering  brother, 
who  is  helpless  with  disease,  because  we  are  persuaded  that  after  all  he 
shall  not  die.  AAre  minister  to  his  present  wants.  A\Te  do  not  hold  our 
peace  when  the  name  of  a dear  one  is  reviled  because  we  arc  convinced 


THE  TYPE  AND  MODEL  OF  MISSIONARY  EFFORT. 


21 


that  in  the  course  of  time  liis  reputation  shall  come  forth  like  the  sun. 
And  so,  even  if  we  had  Scriptural  warrant  for  the  impression  that  the 
benefits  of  redemption  may,  in  some  way,  be  mysteriously  imparted  to 
the  heathen,  yet  we  could  not  behold  their  attitude  to  God,  and  the 
manifold  calamities  of  their  ignorance,  without  feeling  our  pity  and  phi- 
lanthropy equally  impelled  to  dispel  their  darkness  at  once.  But  the 
appeal  should  be  irresistible  upon  the  supposition,  which  is  the  only  one 
the  Scriptures  warrant,  that  they  who  are  destitute  of  the  external  means 
are  also  destitute  of  the  internal  dispensation  of  grace — that  they  who 
are  aliens  from  the  commonwealth  of  Israel  and  strangers  to  the  cove- 
nants of  promise,  are  also  without  Christ ; and  because  without  Christ, 
without  God,  and  without  hope  in  the  world. 

If  there  is  any  force  in  the  figure  so  often  recurring  in  the  Scriptures, 
it  were  as  idle  to  expect  a crop  from  a soil  in  which  no  seed  had  been 
deposited,  as  to  expect  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit  where  the  "W ord  had  not 
been  disseminated.  That  is  the  instrument  of  grace  and  holiness.  To  say 
that  the  heathen  can  be  saved  irrespective  of  the  work  of  Christ,  is  to 
renounce  the  whole  doctrine  of  atonement,  and  to  pour  contempt  upon 
that  very  zeal  for  the  holiness  of  God  which  lies  at  the  foundation  of  the 
Saviour's  sacrifice.  To  suppose  that  the  benefits  of  redemption  can  be 
imparted  where  the  knowledge  of  redemption  is  not  found,  is  to  violate 
all  the  analogies  of  providence,  and  to  contradict  the  express  teachings 
of  Revelation.  But  granting  that,  by  a provision  analogous  to  that  which 
extends  redemption  to  infants,  those  who  are  most  diligent  in  improving 
the  light  of  nature  are  led  by  the  Spirit,  and  are  in  a state  of  salvation,  the 
number,  upon  the  most  charitable  estimate,  is  so  small,  that  it  hardly 
deserves  to  be  taken  into  the  account  in  considering  the  prospects  of  the 
heathen  world.  It  would  create,  at  best,  only  a possibility  of  salvation, 
while  the  overwhelming  likelihood  would  remain  that  hardly  one  in  mill- 
ions would  avail  himself  of  it.  The  appeal  to  our  sympathies  is  scarcely 
affected.  The  call  is  almost  as  loud  as  it  was  before.  There  is  no  excuse 
for  our  apathy  and  indifference.  The  spirit  of  our  Master  is  the  spirit  of 
compassion  upon  the  weak  and  ignorant,  and  them  that  are  out  of  the  way. 
"W e must  preach  good  tidings  to  the  meek,  we  must  bind  up  the  broken- 
hearted, proclaim  liberty  to  the  captives,  and  the  opening  of  the  prison 
to  them  that  are  bound. 

But  such  darkness  as  that  which  enshrouds  the  heathen  world,  requires 
a stronger  light  than  the  glimmering  of  a feeble  star.  The  day  spring  from 
on  high  must  visit  them,  the  suu  of  righteousness  must  arise  with  healing 
in  his  wings.  The  good  Samaritan  cannot  pass  by  on  the  other  side  and 


22 


THE  SACRIFICE  OF  CHRIST. 


leave  the  wounded  traveller  to  the  chances  of  help,  he  must  alight  and 
put  him  on  his  own  beast,  conduct  him  to  the  inn,  and  make  provision 
for  his  wants.  We  cannot  slight  the  miseries  of  so  many  millions  of 
mankind,  and  quiet  our  consciences  with  the  vague  plea  that  their 
case  may  not  be  desperate.  We  know  that  they  are  diseased  and  that 
we  have  a remedy,  and  we  do  not  know  that  they  can  he  healed  without 
it.  We  know  that  there  is  salvation  in  the  sound  of  the  Gospel;  we  do 
not  know  that  there  can  be  salvation  where  the  silver  trumpet  is  not  blown. 
There  is  certainty  on  one  side,  there  is  no  certainty  on  the  other.  Who 
can  hesitate  as  to  what  the  priestly  office  of  the  Church  involves  in  such 
an  aspect  of  the  case?  How  can  we  explain  the  strange  infatuation  of 
the  people  of  God  ? There  is  a spectacle  before  us  of  misery,  and  degrada- 
tion, and  ruin,  compared  with  which  the  decay  of  States  and  empires  is  but 
the  small  dust  of  the  balance.  A wail  comes  up  from  the  regions  of  super- 
stition, idolatry  and  error,  deep  and  terrible  as  that  which  brought  our 
Master  from  the  skies.  Millions  upon  millions  plunging  into  perdition, 
and  we  turn  unmoved  away,  because  without  Scripture,  analogy  or  ex- 
perience, we  have  fancied  to  ourselves  that  here  and  there  a chance  indi- 
vidual may  be  saved.  We  harden  our  hearts  and  steel  our  sensibilities,  and 
yet  dare  to  lay  the  flattering  unction  to  our  souls,  that  we  are  the  disciples 
of  Him  who,  though  He  was  rich,  yet  for  our  sakes  became  poor,  that  we 
through  His  poverty  might  be  made  rich.  Nevertheless  the  declaration 
of  God  standetli  sure : “Whoso  hath  this  world’s  goods  and  seeth  his 
brother  have  need,  and  shutteth  up  his  bowels  of  compassion  from  him, 
how  dwelleth  the  love  of  God  in  him  ?”  If  you  cannot  refuse  a cup  of 
cold  water  without  renouncing  your  title  to  Christ,  how,  oh  how,  can  you 
refuse  the  glorious  gospel  of  the  blessed  God  ? 

3.  The  love  to  God  and  the  compassion  to  man,  which  reigned  in  the 
Saviour’s  breast,  were  not  permitted  to  evaporate  in  sentiment  or  to  expire 
in  transient  desires ; they  were  active  and  operative  principles,  expressing 
themselves  in  a work  which  exemplified  all  their  intensity,  which  tried 
His  allegiance  to  them,  and  which  was  really  a sacrifice  from  the  cost  to 
Him  and  the  benefit  to  others.  We  can  make  no  expiation  for  guilt. 
Our  piety  and  philanthropy  are  not  to  operate  in  this  way.  Hut  we  are 
required  to  evince  the  truth  and  sincerity  of  our  principles  by  labours 
which  shall  really  express  them,  and  which,  in  what  shall  be  the  cost  to  us, 
shall  be  images  of  the  sacrifice  of  our  Master.  Those  works  which  put  our 
integrity  to  the  trial,  are  the  offerings  which  as  Priests,  Ave  are  bound  to 
render  unto  God.  As  the  dispensation  of  the  Gospel  is  founded  in  a real 
sacrifice,  all  its  duties  are  stamped  witli  the  spirit  of  sacrifice.  The  whole 


TIIE  TYPE  AND  MODEL  OF  MISSIONARY  EFFORT. 


23 


Christian  life  is  a sacrifice ; the  man  must  present  himself  to  God  as  a 
living  sacrifice,  and  with  himself  he  must  give  all  that  pertains  to  him. 
The  law  of  sacrifice  is  consequently  the  law  of  Christian  effort.  The  first 
condition  of  discipleship  is  to  deny  ourselves.  We  must  tread  in  the 
footsteps  of  the  Master.  Our  sacrifices  must  he  presented  in  the  same 
spirit  and  with  the  same  motives  as  His — they  differ  in  their  nature,  their 
efficacy,  and  their  ends. 

As  Jesus  by  llis  sacrifice  purchased  redemption,  we,  by  ours,  must 
make  it  known ; and  as  there  were  difficulties  which  He  had  to  remove, 
before  lie  could  bring  salvation  to  our  race,  so  there  are  difficulties 
which  we  have  to  encounter  in  spreading  it  abroad.  In  these  respects 
llis  Priesthood  and  ours  are  strikingly  analogous;  and  it  is  to  give 
us  the  opportunity  of  showing  that  we  are  imbued  with  the  same 
mind  which  was  also  in  Him,  that  so  many  obstacles  have  to  be  sur- 
mounted in  the  work  of  the  world’s  conversion.  It  would  be  contrary 
to  the  whole  analogy  of  our  religion,  contrary  to  the  very  genius  and 
constitution  of  Christianity,  to  suppose  that  those  whose  life  has  sprung 
from  death,  whose  holiness  is  repentance, whose  great  business  is  to  die, 
should  be  remitted  to  indolence  and  ease.  They  are  called  to  sacrifice. 
Hence  it  does  not  stagger  my  faith  to  be  told  of  the  magnitude  of  the 
enterprise  and  the  comparative  inefficiency  of  the  means,  to  be  reminded 
of  the  obstinate  and  bitter  prejudices  which  must  be  subdued — the  fierce 
opposition  which  must  be  allayed — the  cruel  persecutions  which  must 
be  endured.  It  moves  me  nothing  to  point  me  to  the  long  and  patient 
preparation  which  must  fit  the  missionary  for  his  work,  the  inclemency 
of  climates,  the  low  and  disgusting  customs  and  rites  of  heathen  nations. 
All  these  and  a thousand  more  such  obstructions,  are  only  proofs  that 
the  Church  must  tread  in  the  footsteps  of  her  Master,  and  bless  the  nations 
by  the  sacrifice  of  her  own  ease  and  life.  These  are  only  proofs  that  we 
have  ample  and  glorious  opportunities  of  attesting  to  angels  and  to  men, 
that  we  are  really  consecrated  to  a royal  Priesthood,  and  have  the  mate- 
rials for  princely  offerings.  I take  fresh  courage  as  larger  views  of  the 
dignity  and  grandeur  of  the  trust  break  in  upon  iny  soul.  The  magnitude 
of  the  danger  illustrates  the  spirit  of  the  hero.  As  the  whole  earthly 
existence  of  man  is  modified  by  its  relations  to  the  cross,  that  cross  has 
impressed  its  type  upon  our  whole  earthly  being,  so  that  nothing  great  or 
good,  whether  in  providence  or  grace,  can  be  achieved  without  sacrifice. 
The  law  of  our  whole  state  is,  life  out  of  death.  Learning  is  the  fruit  of 
sacrifice ; power  is  the  purchase  of  sacrifice ; character  is  the  result  of 
many  and  severe  sacrifices  ; liberty  comes  from  sacrifice ; and  look  where 


21 


THE  SACRIFICE  OF  CHRIST, 


you  may,  you  will  find  notliing  that  deserves  to  be  called  a good,  that 
lias  not  cost  labour,  or  tears,  or  blood.  The  only  way  to  gain  life  is  to  lose 
it.  This  is  preeminently  true  in  the  sphere  of  our  religion.  We  are  born 
into  the  kingdom  with  pains  and  throes  ; we  live  there  in  much  tribulation. 
We  begin  in  a conflict,  we  continue  in  a conflict,  and  the  conflict  never 
ceases  until  the  crown  is  put  upon  our  heads.  No  marvel,  then,  that  our 
outward  labours  for  Christ  should  call  for  the  crucifixion  of  the  flesh. 
We  should  have  reason  to  doubt  their  genuineness  as  Christian  works, 
if  they  involved  no  test  of  our  principles,  if  they  required  no  agony,  or 
tears  or  blood.  In  the  very  difficulties  of  the  world’s  conversion  we  see 
the  tokens  of  our  Father’s  will.  These  are  the  signs  that  we  arc  called 
to  undertake  it ; we  should  rejoice  that  we  have  the  opportunity  of  show- 
ing our  love  to  our  Master’s  name,  and  our  charity  for  our  fallen  race. 
These  are  the  crosses  which  precede  the  crown,  the  tribulations  through 
which  we  pass  into  glory.  If  we  would  reign  with  Jesus  we  must  also 
suffer  with  Him ; if  we  would  sit  on  His  right  hand  or  on  llis  left,  or 
what  suits  us  better,  at  His  feet,  in  His  kingdom,  we  must  be  baptized 
with  the  baptism  that  He  was  baptized  with,  and  drink  of  the  cup  that 
He  drank  of. 

I think  it  of  great  importance  that  this  peculiarity  of  our  work 
should  be  understood.  The  whole  course  of  reasoning  by  which  many 
pacify  their  consciences,  while  neglecting  the  only  enterprise  in  which 
they  can  acquit  themselves  as  Priests  before  God,  is  founded  upon  a 
radical  misconception  of  the  nature  of  their  calling.  They  expect  the 
mountains  to  be  levelled,  the  valleys  to  be  elevated,  the  rough  places 
made  smooth,  before  they  herald  the  advent  of  their  Lord  ; whereas  this 
is  the  very  labour  by  which  they  are  required  to  prepare  His  way.  This 
is  the  very  work  which  llis  church'  must  do.  She  must  cast  up  the 
high-way  for  the  progress  of  the  Gospel  by  her  own  efforts,  self-denial 
and  prayer.  She  has  no  questions  to  ask,  but  what  is  the  will  of  the 
Lord;  that  being  known,  to  be  deterred  by  difficulties  is  to  renounce  her 
faith,  and  to  withhold  her  sacrifices  is  to  be  unworthy  of  the  office  to 
which  her  Lord  has  commissioned  her.  The  full  and  distinct  recognition 
of  the  truth  which  I have  been  endeavouring  to  present  is,  it  seems  to  me, 
all  that  is  necessary  to  awaken  the  energies  of  God’s  people  upon  a scale  of 
grandeur  which  the  world  has  never  witnessed  before.  AVe  have  great 
resources  in  means  and  men,  in  piety,  learning,  talent  and  wealth.  The 
world  is  open  before  us.  Commerce  and  war  have  broken  down  the 
barriers  of  centuries,  and  the  rapid  and  constant  intercourse  of  the 
nations  has  brought  the  heathen  to  our  door.  The  ships  are  waiting  in 


TIIE  TYPE  AND  MODEL  OF  MISSIONARY  EFFORT. 


25 


port  to  bear  the  heralds  of  salvation  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  The 
American  Eagle  and  the  British  Lion  are  prepared  to  accompany  and 
protect  them,  wherever  they  may  choose  to  pitch  their  tents.  Tho 
harvest  is  ripe  for  the  sickle,  or,  to  change  the  figure,  the  altar  is  ready 
for  the  sacrifice — the  materials  are  all  waiting  to  be  offered,  nothing, 
nothing  is  wanting  but  the  spirit  in  the  Priest  to  avail  himself  of  the 
golden  opportunity.  Let  the  Church  comprehend  her  calling,  let  her 
comprehend  the  times,  and  there  would  be  presented  to  God  an  oblation 
which  would  soon  change  the  aspect  of  the  world.  We  should  soon  be 
found  rejoicing  in  sacrifices.  The  father  would  bring  his  son  with  delight 
and  offer  him  upon  the  altar  of  God.  The  rich  would  bring  their  wealth, 
the  wise  their  learning,  the  great  their  power,  the  poor  their  prayers, 
all  would  have  something  to  testify  their  zeal  for  God  and  their  sympathy 
for  man.  Commerce  would  consecrate  its  ships,  and  war  its  victories. 
Soon  the  name  of  Jesus  would  be  found  in  every  dialect  under  Heaven. 
The  spirit  of  sacrifice  is  all  that  we  want — the  offering  lies  at  the  door. 
And,  my  brethren,  can  we  endure  the  shame  when  God  calls  us  by  His 
Providence,  and  commands  us  in  His  word  to  undertake  this  work,  spe- 
cifically in  the  light  of  a sacrifice,  in  order  that  in  doing  it  we  may 
imitate  Him  who  prepared  us  for  it  by  a sacrifice  which  cost  Him  His 
life  ? Can  we  endure  the  shame,  the  deep  damnation  of  our  indolence 
and  love  of  ease,  our  cowardice  and  idleness,  if  we  decline  to  bind 
the  victim  with  the  cords  of  our  love  to  the  horns  of  the  altar? 
Shall  we  be  deterred  by  the  prospect  of  self-denial  ? Who  is  so  base 
that  he  would  let  a nation  perish  rather  than  forego  some  little  pleas- 
ure or  encounter  a little  pain?  Who  so  mean  that  for  his  own  per- 
sonal and  private  ends  he  would  be  content  that  the  earth  should  be 
covered  with  darkness?  But  your  children  are  dear,  and  you  cannot 
give  them  up ; you  cannot  renounce  for  them  the  prospects  of  wealth,  and 
influence,  and  fame ; you  must  keep  them  at  home  though  continents 
join  with  the  isles  in  imploring  your  aid.  What  would  you  think  of 
this  plea  if  your  country  should  call  to  arms  ? Could  you  find  capacity 
in  your  souls  large  enough  for  despising  the  man  who  could  hold  back 
his  sons,  when  patriotism  was  mustering  its  hosts  for  the  conflict? 
At  your  country’s  call  you  would  gladly  give  up  all.  And  is  there  no 
magic  in  the  call  of  Jesus  ? Under  your  country’s  banners  you  would 
renounce  your  homes,  your  wives  and  lands,  you  would  endure  hard- 
ships as  good  soldiers,  and  rejoice  in  them  the  more,  the  severer  they 
were — the  cold  ground,  the  open  air,  bogs  and  marshes,  disease,  and 
hunger,  and  thirst,  all  this  would  be  sweet  to  you  if  it  added  to  your 


26 


THE  SACRIFICE  OF  CHRIST, 


country’s  glory.  And  is  there  nothing  in  the  glory  of  Jesus,  nothing  in 
attachment  to  that  country,  of  which  you  hope  to  be  immortal  citizens, 
nothing  in  the  great  interests  of  the  human  soul,  to  stir  up  your  energies 
and  to  nerve  your  resolutions ? And  are  you  disciples  of  Jesus?  Can 
you  stand  beneath  the  cross,  can  you  behold  the  lamb  there  slain,  the 
blood  there  poured  out  like  water;  can  you  listen  to  the  cry  of  agony 
and  feel  the  shaking  earth,  and  shudder  at  the  darkened  heavens,  and 
then  talk  of  your  sacrifices  for  that  Saviour?  Shame,  shame,  if  we 
draw  back  in  the  service  of  such  a Lord.  No,  no,  my  brethren,  let  us 
gird  ourselves  for  the  sacrifices,  let  us  rejoice  in  making  them.  They 
are  but  shadows  after  all,  mere  emblems  and  images — the  true  sacrifice 
was  made  on  Calvary.  The  way  has  been  broken  up,  the  breaker  has 
gone  before  us;  let  us  follow  in  His  tracks,  we  shall  know  them  by  the 
blood.  Let  us  put  our  hands  in  His  and  bid  an  eternal  farewell  to  all 
parleys  with  flesh  and  blood. 

4.  And,  as  there  was  a joy  set  before  Jesus,  for  which  He  endured 
the  cross,  despising  the  shame,  so  there  is  a glorious  recompense  of  reward 
attached  to  our  sacrifices  and  labours  of  love.  We  are  not  required  to 
spend  our  strength  f)r  nought,  nor  to  waste  our  energies  upon  a bootless 
scheme.  The  reward  of  Jesus  was  won  upon  the  strictest  principles  of 
right.  Ifc  deserved  the  glory  with  which  for  His  sacrifice  He  was  crowned. 
The  reward,  in  our  case,  is  exclusive]}’  of  grace.  We  can  never  be  other 
than  unprofitable  servants;  but  God,  in  infinite  goodness,  measures 
the  expressions  of  Ilis  favour  by  the  intensity  with  which  we  have 
manifested  the  spirit  of  allegiance  to  Him.  All  He  asks  is,  that  the 
heart  should  be  in  the  service;  and  any  effort  that  really  proceeds  from 
love  to  His  name,  and  charity  to  the  race,  will  never  be  overlooked  nor 
forgotten.  A cup  of  cold  water  ministered  in  the  spirit  and  for  the 
sake  of  Christ,  is  a treasure  laid  up  in  Heaven.  The  moral  significance 
of  our  actions  depends  upon  the  degree  and  severity  of  the  sacrifice. 
What  costs  us  little  means  little.  It  is  not  the  external  splendour  of  the 
deed,  it  is  the  spirit  in  which  it  is  performed,  and  the  self-denial  it 
involves,  that  determines  its  value  in  the  sight  of  God.  If  vanity,  osten- 
tation, or  secular  motives  have  prompted  it,  if  it  have  sprung  from  a 
mercenary  spirit,  and  is  presented  as  a price  for  the  Divine  favour,  if  its 
asceticism  and  self-denial  are  regarded  as  pleas  of  merit  and  occasions  of 
self-gratulation  and  applause,  the  water  is  polluted  at  the  fountain — the 
victim  is  blemished,  it  is  the  halt  and  the  lame  that  are  presented  on  the 
altar.  The  act  must  proceed  from  love,  be 'a  cheerful  and  voluntary 
expression  of  love,  and  vindicate  its  own  sincerity  by  its  cost  to  the 


T1IE  TYPE  AND  MODEL  OF  MISSIONARY  EFFORT. 


27 


flesh.  When  these  conditions  meet,  there  is  a reward  which  becomes  the 
more  glorious  the  less  we  feel  it  to  be  deserved,  a reward  compared  with 
which  the  poor  satisfaction  we  obtain  in  the  carnal  indulgences  which  we 
spare  in  refusing  to  make  sacrifices,  deserves  not  to  be  named.  This 
reward  is  twofold — it  is  the  reward  of  success  here  and  glory  hereafter. 
The  first  is  not  sufficiently  understood,  nor  the  latter  sufficiently  contem- 
plated'. I have  no  hesitation  in  laying  down  the  proposition  that  no 
real  sacrifice  of  the  Christian  heart  is  ever  lost,  even  in  this  world. 
If  it  is  an  exercise  of  some  personal  grace,  the  exercise  strengthens  the 
habit  and  improves  the  principle  of  grace  in  general.  Tf  it  is  an  effort 
for  the  external  kingdom  of  Christ,  it  enters  as  a link  in  the  chain  of 
Providence,  and  contributes  its  part  to  the  final  consummation.  Works  of 
grace  are  as  immortal  as  grace  itself — they  can  never  perish.  As  the 
sacrifice  of  Christ,  the  great  High  Priest,  was  infallibly  accepted,  so  the 
real  sacrifices  of  all  whom  He  has  consecrated  Priests,  must  be  as  really 
accepted,  and  as  really  secure,  in  the  way  of  means,  the  blessings  to 
which  they  were  directed.  Our  labours  for  the  conversion  of  the  world, 
as  far  as  they  are  spiritual  sacrifices,  must  be  crowned  with  success. 
What  now  hinders  the  result,  is  that  there  is  so  little  sacrifice  for  it. 
We  pray — but  what  is  there  of  agony  in  our  prayers?  Who  wrestles 
with  God?  Whose  soul  is  burdened  with  the  weight  of  a perishing 
world,  or  who  takes  an  hour  from  his  sleep  or  foregoes  a single  meal,  in 
order  that  he  might  plead  the  cause  of  the  millions  upon  millions  that 
kno\v  not  God?  And  are  such  prayers  sacrifices — are  they  more  than 
breath ; and  can  there  be  any  wonder  that  mere  breath  should  not  move 
the  Lord  of  Hosts?  What  was  the  spirit  in  which  Christ  prayed,  when 
He  made  His  soul  an  offering  for  sin?  Again  we  give:  But  who,  like 
the  widow,  gives  all  his  living,  who  denies  himself  one  luxury,  or  re- 
fuses one  indulgence,  that  he  might  have  the  means  of  contributing 
more  to  the  cause  of  the  Redeemer?  How  many  give  only  what  they 
think  they  will  not  miss!  How  many  professedly  adjust  their  contribu- 
tions by  the  principle,  that  God  is  entitled  only  to  what  they  do  not 
want ; and  accordingly  treat  His  kingdom  as  they  w'ould  treat  a beggar 
who  supplicates  for  aims  at  the  door ! Are  such  gifts  sacrifices,  and  is  it 
any  wonder  that  they  should  stink  in  the  nostrils  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts  ? 
He  is  no  pensioner  upon  our  bounty ; the  cattle  upon  a thousand  hills 
are  His,  and  what  He  requires  is  some  proof  that  we  recognize  His  right, 
His  supreme  and  absolute  right,  to  us  and  ours.  We  are  not  first,  and 
then  the  Lord  to  have  what  we  can  spare.  He  is  first,  and  we  are  to  have 
what  He  may  allow  for  our  sustenance  and  comfort.  If  these  things 


28 


THE  SACRIFICE  OF  CHRIST, 


are  so,  its  is  painfully  obvious  that  the  Cburcb  collectively  is  not 
animated  with  tlie  spirit  of  its  Priesthood — it  makes  no  sacrifices  for  the 
heathen  world,  it  detains  the  victims  from  the  altar,  and  the  dark- 
ness continues  to  cover  the  earth  and  gross  darkness  the  people.  The 
few  who  here  and  there  are  awake  to  their  responsibilities,  and  are  strug- 
gling to  do  their  duty,  will  find  in  the  issue  that  their  work  has  not  been 
in  vain.  Every  prayer  has  told,  every  contribution  has  told,  every 
missionary  has  told,  every  martyr  death  has  told,  all  have  entered  into 
the  complicated  web  of  Providence,  and  all  have  aided  in  bringing  about 
the  accomplishment  of  the  eternal  purposes  of  God.  And  when  the 
whole  Church  shall  comprehend  the  nature  of  her  calling,  and  summon 
her  energies  to  make  the  sacrifice  which  God  exacts  at  her  hands,  the 
period  will  soon  revolve  in  which  sacrifices  will  give  place  to  praise  and 
trials  to  glory. 

Those  who  are  embarked  in  the  work  should  not  be  discouraged  because 
there  are  not  symptoms  of  immediate  success. 

As  in  the  discoveries  of  science,  according  to  the  observation  of  Whe- 
well,  so  in  every  great  enterprise,  there  are  always  three  stages,  the  pre- 
lude, the  pursuit,  the  triumph.  The  prelude  is  mainly  a work  of  pre- 
paration. It  is  the  mustering  of  forces,  the  collection  and  distribution 
of  means,  the  marshalling  of  the  hosts  for  the  impending  conflict.  This 
stage,  in  the  missionary  work,  consists  in  efforts  to  awaken  interest,  to 
arouse  the  dormant  energies  of  the  Church,  and  to  bring  it  to  a full  appre- 
hension of  its  duty  and  the  magnitude  and  extent  of  the  task  to  be  per- 
formed. In  the  pursuit,  the  battle  is  joined:  and,  as  in  the  ardour  of 
the  contest,  it  is  often  impossible  to  determine  the  chances  of  victory,  or 
to  estimate  the  success  of  particular  evolutions  and  manoeuvres — so,  in 
the  great  work  of  missions,  while  the  enterprise  is  still  in  progress,  in 
the  heat  and  fervour  of  the  struggle  it  is  hardly  possible  to  comprehend 
the  bearing  of  particular  achievements,  or  to  ascertain  the  measure  of 
what  is  actually  accomplished.  Appearances,  for  the  time,  may  be 
doubtful,  when,  after  all,  there  is  a real  and  steady  progress. 

While  Jesus  was  engaged  in  1 1 is  own  peculiar  work,  as  He  ap- 
proached its  termination  the  appearance  was  anything  but  encour- 
aging to  the  minds  of  Ilis  disciples,  and  the  victory  was  gained  at  the 
very  hour  in  which  all  seemed  to  be  lost.  The  corn  of  wheat  must  lie 
under  the  ground  and  seem  to  perish,  before  it  can  vegetate  and  bring 
forth  fruit.  In  this  enterprise,  therefore,  we  are  not  to  be  disheartened 
by  unpromising  appearances.  The  day  of  triumph  will  come,  and  our 
defeats  and  disasters  will  be  the  means  of  advancing  it.  What  we  have 


TIIE  TYPE  AND  MODEL  OF  MISSIONARY  EFFORT. 


29 


to  do  is  to  gird  ourselves  for  the  fight.  The  faith  of  God  is  pledged  for 
the  rest.  AY  hen  we  engage  in  good  earnest  in  the  enterprise,  offering  up 
the  sacrifices  of  prayers  and  men  and  alms,  we  shall  soon  see  the  ensign 
of  the  Lord  lifted  up  on  high,  and  the  nations  flocking  to  Ilis  standard 
Arictory  will  perch  upon  our  banners,  and  the  shout  will  thunder  through 
the  temple  of  God,  “The  kingdoms  of  this  world  have  become  the  king- 
doms of  our  Lord  and  of  Ilis  Christ !”  Is  not  this  a reward  worth  striving 
for?  And  when  you  add  to  it  that  eternal  weight  of  glory  which  awaits  us 
in  the  skies,  is  there  not  inducement  enough  to  awake  the  very  dead  in 
labours  for  the  honours  of  Jesus  ? My  brethren,  do  we  believe  in  our  relig- 
ion ; can  we  believe  in  its  promises  and  prospects,  and  yet  be  so  reluct- 
ant to  make  the  sacrifices  it  requires?  AVhat  have  her  labours  for  the 
conversion  of  the  world  cost  the  Church  collectively?  Individuals  have 
suffered,  have  given  themselves  and  their  all  as  a free-will  offering  to 
God.  Parents,  here  and  there,  have  consecrated  their  children  to  the 
work,  and  God  has  accepted  the  gift.  Young  men  and  maidens  have 
taken  their  lives  in  their  hands  and  become  strangers  and  pilgrims  upon 
earth;  and  some  here  to-night  have  had  the  distinguished  honour  of 
anointing  heathen  soil  with  martyr-blood  derived  from  their  veins. 
These  are  glorious  achievements  of  Grace,  and  the  actors  shall  flourish  in 
eternal  renown.  But  the  Church  collectively,  what  has  she  suffered  for 
Christ,  what  has  she  suffered  for  the  heathen?  AVhere  are  her  sacrifices, 
where  her  tears,  where  the  offerings  that  have  cost  her  dear  ? AVhat  has 
our  Presbyterian  Church  done  worthy  of  her  privileges  and  resources  ? 
How  many  sacrifices  can  she  count  as  proofs  of  her  love  to  God  and  man  ? 
I would  not  reproach  her — with  all  her  faults  I love  her ; and  when  I 
cease  to  love  her,  may  my  heart  cease  to  beat.  It  is  because  I love  her 
that  I would  have  her  love  her  Lord  more ; and  that  I would  delight 
to  trace  upon  her  the  scars  and  wounds  of  many  a hard-fought  battle  in 
His  cause.  I would  have  her  foremost  in  sacrifices  as  she  is  foremost  in 
intelligence,  purity  of  doctrine  and  simplicity  of  worship. 

I have  now,  brethren,  very  inadequately,  I know,  discharged  the  duty 
assigned  to  me.  I have  taken  you  to  the  cross,  and  discussed  this  great 
subject  in  the  light  of  the  arguments  and  motives  derived  from  it.  My 
appeal  has  been  to  Christian  principle,  Christian  faith  and  Christian  love. 
I have  pointed  you  to  your  Saviour,  and  endeavored  to  illustrate  the 
spirit  in  which  He  laid  down  His  life  that  He  might  take  it  again.  I 
have  explained  the  nature  of  your  own  spiritual  Priesthood,  and  insisted 
on  the  duty,  the  privilege,  the  glory  of  making  sacrifices  to  communicate 
that  salvation  which  Jesus  made  His  sacrifice  to  procure.  I have  appealed 


30 


THE  SACRIFICE  OF  CHRIST, 


to  no  selfish,  personal,  or  secular  considerations.  I have  drawn  no  argu- 
ment from  the  sympathies,  the  vanity,  the  pride  of  the  natural  heart.  I 
have  resorted  to  no  tricks  of  rhetoric,  no  artifices  of  logic,  to  seduce  your 
feelings,  and  entrap  you  into  conclusions  for  a momentary  effect.  I have 
simply  contemplated  you  as  the  anointed  Priests  of  the  Lord,  and  have 
sketched  a single  department  of  your  work  in  this  high  and  holy  calling. 
Have  I exaggerated  aught  ? Is  it  so  that  when  our  Divine  Master  had 
completed  His  work  of  sacrifice  -for  the  expiation  of  human  guilt,  He 
anointed  Ilis  followers  with  nis  own  spirit,  and  commissioned  them  to 
make  the  sacrifices  which  should  be  needed  to  propagate  the  Gospel  to  the 
ends  of  the  earth?  Is  it  our  business  to  spread,  as  it  was  His  business  to 
purchase,  salvation  by  sacrifice  ? Is  this  so  ? And  does  not  the  call  of  the 
heathen  world  come  to  us  with  a solemn,  momentous,  awful  emphasis? 
They  are  perishing  in  their  sins.  True,  it  is  their  own  guilt  which  con- 
demns them.  Their  idolatry,  superstition  and  will-worship,  their  impu- 
rities, crimes  and  abominations,  are  all  the  result  of  their  own  voluntary 
ignorance,  the  successive  steps  and  indications  of  a wicked  apostasy  from 
God.  They  are  without  excuse ; and  when  they  stand  before  the  great 
white  throne,  every  mouth  shall  be  stopped  and  all  the  world  shall  become 
guilty  before  God.  Their  condemnation  is  just.  But  are  we  free  from 
their  blood?  Have  we  manifested  the  love  to  them  which  has  been  man- 
ifested to  us?  We,  too,  were  perishing  in  our  sins,  but  the  Saviour  passed 
by;  and  when  He  extended  to  us  the  arms  of  salvation  and  of  mere}', 
He  commanded  us  to  give  to  others  what  we  had  so  freely  received 
ourselves.  Can  we  face  the  Saviour  by  who^e  stripes  we  were  healed ; 
can  we  encounter  the  rebuke  of  that  eye  which  melted  Peter  into 
penitence  and  shame,  when  we  oonfront  the  dying  millions,  in  reference 
to  whom  we  must  have  the  agonizing  consciousness  that  we  have 
made  no  sacrifices  for  their  souls?  Who  can  brook  the  thought, 
saved  by  blood  himself,  and  unwilling  to  endure  a little  hardship 
for  the  salvation  of  others?  Were  it  not  for  all-glorious,  matchless 
grace,  it  seems  to  me  that  the  faithless  Christian,  when  he  meets 
the  wretched  tribes  of  superstition,  for  whom  he  has  done  nothing  that 
deserves  to  be  counted  a sacrifice,  would  wish  to  sink  into  the  earth,  or  be 
crushed  by  rocks  and  mountains,  rather  than  meet  that  lledeemer  who 
was  all  sacrifice  for  Him.  He  cannot  sec  the  scars  and  wounds  and  look 
upon  his  own  unmanglcd  body.  The  sense  of  unfaithfulness,  of  shame,  of 
baseness,  of  utter  meanness,  must  be  excruciating,  would  be  excruciating 
beyond  degree,  were  it  not  that  the  sacrifice  which  saves  also  cancels. 
This  very  consideration  that  God  forgives  us,  should  make  us  now 


THE  TYPE  AND  MODEL  OF  MISSIONARY  EFFORT. 


SI 


more  determined  not  to  forgive  ourselves.  The  destinies  of  the  heathen 
are,  in  some  measure,  intrusted  to  us ; we  hold  the  key  of  life.  We  are 
required  to  make  sacrifices  for  their  souls,  and  we  assume  a fearful  respon- 
sibility in  declining  to  do  so.  It  is  a vain  plea  that  the  work  is  too  great 
for  us:  that  we  have  neither  the  men  nor  the  means.  Have  we  prayed 
for  the  men  with  an  earnestness,  intensity  and  fervour,  that  may  cause  our 
prayers  to  be  denominated  sacrifices?  Is  not  this  apart  of  our  office? 
nave  we  not  the  means  of  supporting  all  that  God  shall  give?  Are  not 
our  resources  abundant,  provided  the  heart  were  in  the  work  ? Have  we 
done  what  we  could?  Nations  sitting  in  darkness  and  the  valley  of  the 
shadow  of  death  cry  to  us  for  light.  These  nations  we  have  been  com- 
missioned to  enlighten;  and  because' the  work  cannot  be  done  with  a sigh 
or  a wish,  or  a little  useless  treasure  that  no  one  would  miss,  we,  the 
Priests  of  God,  who  have  been  bought  with  blood,  and  appointed  for 
self-denial;  fold  our  arms  and  say  they  must  die.  We  pity  them,  we  arc 
sorry  for  them,  but  it  would  require  too  much  trouble  to  do  all  that  their 
case  demands;  and  we  must,  therefore,  let  them  perish  in  their  sins.  Oh, 
my  God,  have  mercy  upon  us!  Oh,  blessed  Saviour,  reveal  thy  love  for 
ruined  man,  and  shed  it  abroad  in  our  hearts ! We  are  verily  guilty 
concerning  our  brother,  in  that  we  saw  the  anguish  of  his  soul  when  he 
besought  us  and  we  would  not  hear. 

When  I consider  the  magnitude  and  grandeur  of  the  motives  which 
press  upon  the  Church  to  undertake  the  evangelization  of  the  world  ; 
when  I see  that  the  glory  of  God,  the  love  of  the  Saviour,  and  pity  for 
the  lost,  all  conspire  in  one  great  conclusion  ; when  I contemplate  our 
own  character  and  relations  as  spiritual  Priests,  and  comprehend  the 
dignity,  the  honour,  the  tenderness  and  self-denial  of  the  office,  and  then 
reflect  upon  the  indifference,  apathy  and  languor  which  have  seized  upon 
the  people  of  God;  when  I look  to  the  Heavens  above  me  and  the  world 
around  me,  and  hear  the  call  which  the  wail  of  perishing  millions  sends 
up  to  the  skies,  thundered  back  upon  the  Church  with  all  the  solemnity 
of  a Divine  commission ; when  a world  says  come,  and  pleads  its  mis- 
eries ; when  God  says  go,  and  pleads  His  glory,  and  Christ  repeats  the 
commands,  and  points  to  His  hands  and  His  feet  and  His  side,  it  is  enough 
to  make  the  stone  cry  out  of  the  wall,  and  the  beam  out  of  the  timber  to 
answer  it. 

If  Jesus  should  stand  again  upon  the  Mount  of  Olives  and  summon 
before  Him  this  venerable  Court,  as  He  summoned  the  disciples  of  His 
personal  Ministry,  and  the  Apostles  of  His  extraordinary  call ; if  He  should 
collect  you  and  me  and  all  the  officers  and  all  the  people  of  His  Church 


32 


THE  SACRIFICE  OF  CHRIST,  ETC. 


on  earth,  what  think  you  would  be  the  language  in  which  Re  would 
address  us?  It  would  be  an  august  spectacle — a solemn,  an  awful 
scene.  The  words  that  He  would  speak  would  pierce  our  souls  and  stir 
the  very  depths  of  our  being.  They  could  never  be  effaced  from  the 
memory.  We  should  think  of  them  by  day  and  dream  of  them  by 
night ; and  the  most  anxious  cares  of  business  could  never  drown  them. 
The  voice  would  ring  in  our  ears  wherever  we  went — at  home,  in  the 
market,  by  the  way-side,  as  we  lay  down  and  as  we  rose  up.  It  would 
be  an  era  in  our  history  never  to  be  forgotten.  Is  it  presumption  to 
imagine  what  those  words  would  be?  Shall  we  say  that  He  would 
reproach  us?  His  nature  is  made  of  tenderness,  His  bowels  melt  with 
love.  His  eyes  would  beam  only  with  pity,  but  our  own  hearts  would 
be  busy  with  upbraidings.  My  brethren,  there  is  no  need  for  any  exer- 
cise of  fancy,  ne  was  once  present  with  Ilis  collected  Church,  and  He 
did  give  her  a parting  mandate — Go  ye  into  all  the  world. 

Methinks  I see  Him  here  to-night,  with  His  hands  uplifted  to  bless  us, 
repeating  the  same  commission  to  us ; and  as  here  present,  I cannot 
restrain  the  prayer  that  He  would  breathe  upon  us  as  He  did  upon  the 
Apostles,  that  we  too  might  receive  the  Holy  Ghost.  With  a fresh  anoint- 
ing from  Him,  we  will  look  upon  the  world  with  new  eyes  and  a new 
heart,  and  an  impulse  be  given  to  our  efforts  which  shall  never  falter 
nor  fail,  until  the  whole  earth  is  filled  with  the  glory  of  the  Lord. 
Amen,  so  may  it  be. 


